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Preparation and luminescence characterization of Cu-doped lithium aluminate ceramics within the Li2O-Al2O3 system

  • Original Paper: Sol–gel and hybrid materials for optical, photonic and optoelectronic applications
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Abstract

Cu+-doped lithium aluminates with LiAlO2, LiAl5O8, and Li5AlO4 stoichiometry were investigated. Tetragonal γ-LiAlO2 and cubic α-LiAl5O8 were prepared in the form of bulk ceramics using the Pechini sol–gel route with Cu-doping concentrations up to 1 mol%. For γ-LiAlO2, single-phase samples were obtained only for the lowest doping concentration tested, which was 0.1 mol%, while α-LiAl5O8 samples were single phase within the full concentration series. Radioluminescence and photoluminescence of Cu-doped γ-LiAlO2 featured only the transition from 3d9 4s1 to 3d10 corresponding to Cu+ ions. On the other hand, Cu-doped α-LiAl5O8 samples showed mainly emissions associated with Fe3+ and Cr3+ impurities with overall very small intensity compared to the reference BGO scintillator. Samples of Cu-doped β-Li5AlO4 were prepared using a nitrates decomposition method. Due to the volatility of Li2O, the samples were not in a single phase and contained a certain amount of secondary γ-LiAlO2 phase, even though excess lithium was used for the sample preparation. Furthermore, samples with β-Li5AlO4 exhibited strong hygroscopic properties, making Li5AlO4 an undesirable host material outside of a controlled atmosphere environment.

The graphical abstract shows the unit cells of the three lithium aluminate hosts investigated in this work, along with X-ray excited radioluminescence spectra obtained by doping copper into the γ-LiAlO2 and α-LiAl5O8 hosts.

Highlights

  • Single-phase samples of copper-doped γ-LiAlO2 and α-LiAl5O8 were obtained by the sol–gel method.

  • The Cu:LiAlO2 samples showed a single emission band, caused by a radiative transition of Cu+ ions.

  • The Cu:LiAl5O8 samples exhibited mainly low-intensity emission of undesired impurities.

  • The Cu:Li5AlO4 samples contained a secondary γ-LiAlO2 phase and were highly hygroscopic.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic (Grant No. VI20192022152). Partial support from the European Structural and Investment Funds Project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_026/0008390 and from Specific University Research Grant No. A2_FCHT_2021_003, both by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, is also gratefully acknowledged.

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Correspondence to Tomáš Thoř.

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Thoř, T., Rubešová, K., Jakeš, V. et al. Preparation and luminescence characterization of Cu-doped lithium aluminate ceramics within the Li2O-Al2O3 system. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 103, 898–907 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-022-05905-x

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