1. Introduction
Crystallites and particles of nanometer scale exhibit a variety of unique properties that are very different from those typical for their bulk state. In recent years great efforts were undertaken on investigation of MgAl2O4 phosphorous doped with ions of transi- tion metals [1–3] and lanthanides [4–7]. Magnesium aluminates with the structure of spinel are promising materials due to their stability in a wide range of temperatures, high chemical resistance, mechanical strength, and good dielectric and optical properties [4]. MgAl2O4:Eu phosphorous with bright red fluorescence are used in field emission displays, cathode ray tubes and electroluminescent displays [5]. Using of nanoscale state of the luminescent material will allow increasing of the resolution of such devices and creating thinner layers. A low-level cell of the spinel has cubic symmetry (space group Fd-3m) and contains 96 cation positions 24 of which are occupied. Ions Mg2+ hold 8 of 64 tetrahedral positions and ions Al3+ hold 16 of 32 octahedral positions. Such feature of the crystal structure makes it prospective for the injecting of luminescence activators as ions with valency of 2 and 3 in the wide range of con- centrations. The MgAl2O4:Eu phosphorous can be synthesized by the hydrothermal method [4], by the combined hydrothermal and microwave method with further annealing [5], and by the method of solid phase reaction [6]. In those works the average sizes of the crystallites are about 10–20 nm however the sizes of MgAl2O4:Eu particles are close to 1 lm except [5] where the aver- age size is 75 nm.
Emission spectra at ultraviolet (UV) excitation have been deter- mined by transitions Eu3+: 5D0 ? 7Fj (j = 0–4) and the band 5D0 ? 7F2 has the maximum intensity [4–6]. Heat treatment in the presence of carbon leads to appearance of Eu2+ [7]. An addi- tional band associated with the transition 4f65d ? 4f7(8S7/2) ap- pears in the emission spectrum and corresponds to the transition of Eu2+.
In the present work we describe our experience on preparation of phosphorous nanopowders by the laser evaporation method [8] which gives a possibility of producing weak aggregated nanopow- ders with a narrow size distribution. The fluorescent properties of the synthesized materials were analyzed by the pulsed cathode luminescence method.