Patterning of YVO4:Eu3+ Luminescent Films by Soft Lithography

Abstract Ordered arrays of luminescent YVO 4 :Eu 3+ films with square (side length 19.17 ± 2.05 μm) and dot (diameter 11.20 ± 1.82 μm) patterns were fabricated by two kinds of soft lithography processes, namely, microtransfer molding (μTM) and microcontact printing (μCP), respectively. Both soft‐lithography processes utilize a PDMS elastomeric mold as the stamp combined with a Pechini‐type sol‐gel process to produce luminescent patterns on quartz plates, in which a YVO 4 :Eu 3+ precursor solution was employed as ink. The ordered luminescent YVO 4 :Eu 3+ patterns are revealed by optical micro­scopy and their microstructure, consisting of nanometer‐scale particles, is unveiled by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) observations. Additionally, photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) were carried out to characterize the patterned YVO 4 :Eu 3+ samples. A strong red emission as a result of 5 D 0 – 7 F 2 transition of Eu 3+ was observed under UV‐light or electron‐beam excitation, which implies that combining soft lithography with a Pechini‐type sol‐gel route has potential for fabricating rare‐earth luminescent pixels for next‐generation field‐emission display devices.