The effect of different annealing temperatures on the structure and luminescence properties of Y₂O₃:Bi³⁺ thin film fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering

Highlights: • Y₂O₃:Bi³⁺ phosphor powder was synthesized with the sol gel method. • Y₂O₃:Bi³⁺ thin films were successfully fabricated by the RF magnetron sputtering. • Orientations of these films were depended on the post annealing temperature. • PL showed a variation in the emission bands position. - Abstract: Y₂O₃:Bi³⁺ thin films have been fabricated onto Si substrates by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The influence of different annealing temperature was studied by X-ray diffraction(XRD), Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and Photoluminescence (PL). The XRD study revealed that, the Y₂O₃:Bi³⁺ thin films have a cubic phase but the orientation of these films changed with the increase of the annealing temperature. Evolution of the texture coefficient on the film texture had been calculated.The morphological studies showed that the as-prepared film was smooth and uniform but the annealed films showedislands like growth atdifferent placeson the thin films. Intense blue emission was observed from the as-prepared film using a 325 nm He-Cd laser as excitation source. A variation of the PL peak positions as a function of annealing temperature was observed. These results suggest that the increase in annealing temperature hasaffected the thin film's crystal orientation as well as the luminescence properties of these thin films.