Synthesis and optical studies of gamma irradiated Eu doped nanocrystalline CaF2

Highlights: → The morphology and particle size of the co-precipitation synthesized Eu doped CaF2 nanocrystals are explained. → Results on optical absorption and photoluminescence in gamma irradiated samples are presented. → The various defects responsible for the absorption and emission are explained. → The variation of optical absorption and PL intensity are discussed. - Abstract: Europium (Eu) doped Calcium fluoride (CaF2) nanoparticles are synthesized by co-precipitation method and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) results on gamma irradiated Eu doped CaF2 nanoparticles are presented. The PXRD patterns confirmed the cubic crystallinity of the samples and the particle size is found to be ∼25 nm. The purity of the synthesized nanoparticles is confirmed from FTIR spectrum. The morphological features studied using SEM revealed that nanoparticles are agglomerated and porous. Optical absorption spectrum shows that γ-rayed Eu doped CaF2 nanoparticles exhibit absorption bands at ∼279, 360 and 434 nm. The PL studies showed emission at ∼420, 525 and 552 nm.