Electronic excitation and relaxation processes of oxygen vacancies in YSZ and their involvement in photoluminescence

Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) consists of zirconia and yttria and oxygen vacancies appear in accordance with the ratio of yttria. The oxygen vacancy would sometimes give annoyance, but it would be beneficial on other occasions, depending on its applications. Photoluminescence (PL) due to oxygen vacancies induced by photons with energies around 5.5 eV exhibits two decay time constants. As a possible reason for this, an oxygen vacancy changes its charging state from neutral to positive monovalent by losing an electron when YSZ is irradiated by ultraviolet photons. The PL decays either in a ms range or in a ns range, depending on whether the oxygen vacancies are neutral or positive monovalent. (orig.)