Destruction of the short-range disorder due to erbium doping in Pb(0.8)La(0.2)TiO(3)films

Abstract

We show the destruction of a displacement of Ti in the short-range structure by observing the disappearance of emission and Raman signals when the Er(3+) concentration exceeds 7 mol% in sol-gel-derived Pb(0.8)La(0.2)TiO(3) polycrystalline films. It is believed that there always exists disorder due to displacement of B ions in the skeleton of BO(6) in perovskite ABO(3) materials. This disorder due to the displacement of Ti ions breaks the center of symmetry to activate emission of rare-earth ions such as Er(3+) and Raman modes of perovskites. We found that the breaking of symmetry can be diminished by introducing more Er(3+) ions. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.