Structural, morphological and photoluminescence properties of β-Ag 2 MoO 4 doped with Eu 3+

In this work, we report the investigation on β-Ag (2-3 x ) Eu x MoO 4 ( x = 0.0; 0.0025; 0.005; 0.0075, and 0.01 mmol) materials prepared using the coprecipitation method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement analysis, and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that all of the synthesized β-Ag (2-3 x ) Eu x MoO 4 samples were perfectly monophasic, with spinel-like cubic structure. The results obtained in the morphological analysis indicate that the insertion of the Eu 3+ ion into the β-Ag 2 MoO 4 matrix favors the formation of surface defects and suggests that in higher concentrations of dopant the particles become more geometrically defined. The photoluminescence analysis (PL) was performed using two excitation sources: krypton laser and xenon lamp. Through the emission and excitation spectra it was observed that β-Ag 2 MoO 4 exhibits broad band in the blue region, and as the concentration of Eu 3+ increases this emission is gradually suppressed, giving rise to an intense emission with narrow and well-defined lines in the red region, confirming β-Ag 2 MoO 4 as a good matrix capable of sensitizing and stabilizing the red emission of the Eu 3+ ion. In addition, all other characterizations demonstrate that the replacement of Ag + by Eu 3+ ions caused structural, morphological, and optical changes with lattice disturbances in the short, medium, and long ranges.