UV EMISSION OF TETRAGONAL ZrO2 NANOCRYSTALS EMBEDDED IN ZrSiO4 AMORPHOUS MATRIX

Abstract

Amorphous films Zr 0.8 Si 0.2 O 2 were deposited on quartz substrates at room temperature, by using pulsed laser deposition technique. After annealing at high temperature, Zr 0.8 Si 0.2 O 2 films suffer a phase separation to precipitate tetragonal ZrO 2 nanocrystals in ZrSiO 4 amorphous matrix. Their crystal structure, microstructure, optical absorbance and photoluminescence have been systematically investigated. Tetragonal ZrO 2 nanocrystals show intense UV emission around 392 nm under photonic excitation with a wavelength of 250 nm. The corresponding models of electronic excitation and transition related to UV emission also have been proposed.