Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 93
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-30625-3

Regular Article

Luminescent properties of RE₂O₃ (RE = Lu, Sc, Y) single crystals and ceramics^*

¹ Institute of Physics AS CR, Cukrovarnicka 10, 16253 Prague, Czech Republic
² IMR, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8577 Miyagi, Japan
³ NICHe, Tohoku University, 6-6-10 Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8579 Miyagi, Japan

^a e-mail: babinv@fzu.cz

Received: 17 July 2012
Received in final form: 21 December 2012
Published online: 13 March 2013

Abstract

The optical properties of undoped RE₂O₃ (RE  =  Lu, Sc, Y) sesquioxides, which were prepared by different methods, are reported. Luminescent characteristics, including emission, excitation spectra as well as luminescence decay kinetics were studied in a wide spectral range. The main intrinsic emission bands are located in ultraviolet region and the origin of these luminescent bands is different owing to the different electronic structure. In present paper, the spectral characteristics of these samples are considered and compared with those studied before; the origin of the intrinsic bands is discussed.