Nd 3+ -doped potassium niobate ͑K ͑1−x͒ NbO 3 :Nd ͑x͒ 3+ ͒ polycrystalline powder phosphors for x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.07 mol were prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction method and were characterized by X-ray diffraction ͑XRD͒, field-emissionscanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. The XRD data have shown a single-phase orthorhombic structure for x = 0.01 and 0.03 mol concentrations of Nd 3+ ions, while an additional NdNbO 4 phase is observed at higher concentrations. The photoluminescence spectrum has shown an intense emission band at 1061 nm along with two weak emission bands at 881 and 1343 nm when the samples are excited with 514.5 nm radiation of an Ar + -ion laser. No drastic changes in the intensity of emissions are observed with concentration variation, except slight changes in the intensities and peak positions of crystal-field peaks.Research interest on lanthanide ͑Ln͒-doped materials is rapidly growing due to their potential applications as nonlinear optical materials. These materials found wide use in the development of plasma display panels, field emission displays, and electroluminescent panels. Many researchers reported various phosphor host matrices with suitable luminescent Ln ions that found vital applications in optical devices such as fluorescent lamps, cathode ray tubes, and X-ray intensifying screens. 1-5 Potassium niobate ͑KNbO 3 ͒ is recognized as one of the best host matrices for Ln ions as it is a useful candidate for ferroelectric materials with excellent electro-optic and nonlinear optical coefficients, which have attracted a great interest for applications in optical waveguides, frequency doublers, and holographic storage systems. 6,7 Among Ln ions, Nd 3+ ion is one of the most extensively studied ions for solid-state lasers due to its laser emission at a very useful wavelength, 1064 nm, in addition to the possibility of lasing at other wavelengths such as 1800, 1350, and 881 nm at room temperature. Also, its absorption in the UV-visiblenear-IR ͑NIR͒ regions allows an efficient pumping either with broad-band sources ͑Xenon lamp͒ or with sources of selected wavelength using diode lasers. 8,9 Although plenty of articles on various preparation methods and structural investigations of KNbO 3 -related perovskite ceramics are available, 10-17 only a few articles 18-24 can be found on the luminescent characterization of Ln-doped perovskite materials. Therefore, based on this motivation, we have prepared the KNbO 3 :Nd 3+ phosphors with different concentrations of Nd 3+ ions by the conventional solid-state reaction method in our present work, and the dependence of morphological and fluorescence properties of the prepared materials on Nd 3+ -ion concentration has been investigated.
ExperimentalThe Nd 3+ -doped KNbO 3 powder phosphors were synthesized by the conventional solid-state reaction method by using the raw materials of high purity chemicals: K 2 CO 3 ͑99.9%, Aldrich͒, Nb 2 O 5 ͑99.9%, Aldrich͒, and Nd 2 O 3 ͑99....