Patterning of Light-Emitting YVO4:Eu3+ Thin Films via Inkjet Printing

Printed electronics is expected to be used for fabricating the next-generation displays. However, this technique is still in the laboratory scale and mainly limited to organic luminescent materials and inorganic quantum dots. In this article, a new attempt was made by combining the Pechini-type sol−gel process and inkjet printing for patterning an inorganic YVO 4:Eu 3+ thin film phosphor. The mixed solution of metal salts precursors, citric acid, and poly(ethylene glycol) was directly used as ink to deposit patterns on ITO-coated glass substrate. After calcination at 600 °C in air, the YVO 4:Eu 3+ patterns in micrometer-scale were formed on the substrates, and the photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra were employed to characterize the obtained samples. A dominating red emission coming from 5 D 0 - 7 F 2 transition of Eu 3+ was observed under excitation of UV light or electronic beam. These results demonstrate that the Pechini-type sol−gel process has good compatibility with the inkjet printing technique and has the potential to be used for fabricating the next-generation Field Emission Display (FED) devices.