Correlation of crystal structure and optical properties of Ba 0.97 Nd 0.0267 Ti (1- x ) W x O 3 perovskite.

The Ba 0.97 Nd 0.0267 Ti (1- x ) W x O 3 (BNT x ) pervoskite with a single phase tetragonal structure was prepared at 900 °C using the Molten salt method. Raman spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), absorption spectra (Vis-NIR) and photoluminescence spectra (PL) in the temperature range from 10-300 K were used to investigate the correlations between the crystal structure and the optical properties of BNT x ceramics. Raman analyses and FT-IR indicated that the W 6+ ions are incorporated sufficiently into into the BNT x lattice. The optical absorption spectra were recorded in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm. The optical band gap ( E g ) and Urbach energy ( E u ) values were calculated from the absorption spectra. The emission spectra exhibited three prominent peaks located at 880, 1058 and 1340 nm corresponding to the 4 F 3/2 → 4 I 9/2,11/2,13/2 transition levels, respectively. They also showed a decrease in the intensity of emission spectra following the addition of W 6+ ions. This decrease is due to the slight changes in the crystal environment around Nd 3+ and the non-radiative energy transfer. According to the PL measurements, the study of power-excitation density confirmed that two photons at low energy are required to create the down-conversion (DC) emissions, implying that they may also have important applications as DC materials.