Study on effects of carbon impurities and oxygen vacancies in amorphous alumina phosphor prepared via a solution method

The amorphous alumina phosphors without containing expensive or toxic elements were prepared via a solution method. The obtained sample indicates bluish-white emission centered at 390–430nm by UV excitation. According to the measurement results of Electron Spin Resonance (ESR), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and organic microanalysis, it is found that the carbon impurities exist in the sample and they are essential for luminescence. On the other hand, 27Al NMR measurements indicate the presence of Al of 5-coordination. Moreover, there is good correspondence among the excitation spectra of the emission samples, the experimental optical properties of amorphous alumina, and the calculated oxygen vacancies levels in amorphous alumina model. Therefore, the new luminescence mechanism can be proposed as follows; the electrons in valence band are excited to oxygen vacancies bands by UV light and return to ground state through the carbon impurities band, being accompanied by the bluish-white emission.