Effect of chemical doping on the visible emission in Cu ions doped perovskite zirconates

Abstract

We investigated the effect of the chemical doping on the visible emission of the Cu-ion-doped perovskite zirconates. We synthesized the Cu-ion-doped Sr1-x Ca (x) ZrO3 (SCZO:Cu) compounds (x = 0 - 1), where the structural distortion and the chemical disorder were tuned due to the ionic size difference between Sr2+ and Ca2+. The nominal doping concentration of Cu ion was chosen to be 1%. We found that the visible emission in SCZO:Cu was suppressed dramatically with the substitution of Ca2+ for Sr2+ (x > 0). The violet emission was more susceptible to the structural distortion than the orange and the green emissions. These experimental findings were discussed in relation to the electronic properties of SCZO:Cu.