Luminescence properties of Silicon and Stannous oxide

This book gives an overview on studies of physical, chemical and luminescent properties of pure and rare-earth doped group IV A oxide phosphors has been discussed. The oxides taken under consideration in present work is SiO2 and SnO2. SiO2 have been known for a long time as a convenient host for rare earths and have been widely used for the fabrication of solid-state lasers whereas SnO2 is a wide band gap n-type semiconductor with wide band gap of 2.5-3eV, which crystallizes in the rutile structure (tetragonal structure), SnO2 is a member of a special class of semiconductors that have direct band gaps but are dipole forbidden due to their special wave function symmetry. In the present work group IV A oxide (SiO2 and SnO2) phosphors had been prepared by sol-gel method but pure form of group IV A nanophosphors has feeble luminescence intensity. It increases many fold by doping them with rare earth elements therefore doping has been carried out with the help of rare earth elements (Ce3+, Eu3+ and Dy3+). They are incorporated simultaneously into silica and tin matrixes by sol-gel processes and are further characterized by general and luminescence characterization techniques.