Characterization of Polycrystals of STO Doped with Europium: Sr1-XEuxTiO3

Abstract

The crystalline structure, microstructure, luminescence and dielectric properties of SrTiO3 polycrystals doped with Eu3+ at different compositional ratios were studied by XRD, XPS and SEM analyses. Rietveld refinement of the XRD data shows a slight decrease of the cell volume indicating the incorporation of Eu3+ in the crystalline structure. The structure remains cubic (Pm3m) at room temperature in the analyzed range of Eu doping. XPS studies revealed the characteristic signal of the Eu3+ ion in the solid solution. From the dielectric behavior it was possible to identify that Eu doping produces changes with respect to pure STO. Photoluminescence spectra taken at room temperature showed that Eu3+ doping of SrTiO3 causes emission peaks at 590 and 616 nm.