Plasmonic enhancement of Eu:Y2O3 luminescence by Al percolated layer

The coupling between Eu(3+) rare earth emitters and Al has been investigated in multilayer structures, which consist of an Eu:Y2O3 phosphor film deposited between percolated and continuous Al films. Passive buffer Y2O3 layers were deposited between phosphor and Al films with different thicknesses to analyze the role of the Eu-Al distance on the nanostructuration and emission of the Eu:Y2O3 film. By using Eu(3+) emitters as local structural probes completed by transmission electron microscopy analyses, we show that the deposition on Al promotes the growth of the cubic crystallites. A fluorescence analysis allows us to evaluate the presence of a perturbed structural shell around the cubic core of the crystallites. Moreover, the enhancement observed at short distances is attributed to the localized plasmon resonance of the percolated upper Al film.