Doped YAG nanoparticles: neutron diffraction to explain luminescent properties by the lattice features

Doped YAG is an important material with interesting technological applications in inorganic electroluminescence displays, X-ray scintillators, etc. In order to control the morphology and particle size of products, we modified the preparation methods by adding some additives (polymers, metals and glasses), thus improving the luminescent properties. Particularly, one of the most interesting and puzzling result is that, when dealing with nano-powders with the same particle size, we observed the same emission spectra but values of the quantum efficiency changing about twice. In addition to this, in some samples it was observed a small red shift of the emission band. The goal of this study is to investigate the lattice disorder and strain content of crystalline structure of cerium doped YAG nanoparticles obtained via modified urea glass route by combining Neutron and X-Ray Diffraction.