Abstract: | We report the appearance and enhancement in intensity of impurity related local vibrational modes in Bi2O3 : Ho micro‐rods along with normal modes. Pure and Ho‐doped Bi2O3 micro‐rods were synthesized by conventional co‐precipitation method at 60 °C. The structural and morphological studies were carried out using powder X‐ray diffraction technique and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Raman spectroscopic studies reveal the existence of local phonon vibrational modes (LVM) due to the incorporation of Ho3+. Harmonic approximation method was employed to find the dopant‐related peak in the Raman spectra. Variation in full width at half maximum for LVM with increase in Ho3+ was also investigated. This increase in FWHM indicates the decrease in crystallinity of the doped samples. The phonon lifetime calculation carried out for each samples and the decrease in phonon lifetime with doping concentration make this material a potential candidate for optical and electronic applications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |