The role of the Ca vacancy in the determination of the europium position in the energy gap, its valence state and spectroscopic properties in KCa(PO3)3.

A new very promising red phosphor KCa1-xEux(PO3)3 (x = 1-5%) has been grown by the solid state method. Its luminescent quantum efficiency is close to 100% and the emission is stable over a wide temperature range i.e. 90% and 60% of the room temperature emission intensity remains at 200 °C and at 600 °C, respectively. The chromaticity coordinates were calculated as being x = 0.63, y = 0.37. The IR and Raman spectra were measured, and the maximum phonon energy of KCa1-xEux(PO3)3 is 1276 cm(-1). In the measured emission and excitation spectra of all samples only Eu(3+) ion emission was observed, emission of Eu(2+) is not present. Quantum mechanical calculations showed that in a perfect crystal the 5d levels of Eu(2+) are embedded in the conduction band. Consequently, neither absorption nor emission assigned to the Eu(2+) ions could be observed. The presence of a calcium vacancy is crucial for the explanation of the observed spectrum. The existence of a Ca(2+) vacancy compensates for the charge of Eu(3+) and results in the creation of the magnetic moment which moves the 4f levels to the valence band. Thus, transitions to the Eu(3+) excited levels located in the energy band gap are observed.

Electronic structure and magnetic properties of a molecular octanuclear chromium-based ring.

A comprehensive study of electronic and magnetic properties of Cr8F8Piv16 (HPiv = pivalic acid, trimethyl acetic acid) molecular ring is presented. The total, local and orbital projected density of states are calculated by the first principle density functional theory calculations using the package SIESTA. The original molecule has been approximated by replacing the pivallic groups by H atoms (hydrogen saturation). Electron density, deformation density, electrostatic potential and spin density maps are analyzed and compared with experiment for the first time. Magnetic properties are investigated in detail. Magnetic moments are calculated using two different approaches: the Mulliken one and integration of muffin-tin sphere with a given radius. Different magnetic configurations (ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic and many more with randomly distributed spins up and down) are considered to extract exchange interaction parameter J and check the stability of its estimate.