Synthesis and Research of rare earth-doped color tunable Sr3Gd(PO4)3 phosphors

Abstract

Rare earth-doped Sr3Gd(PO4)3 and emission color tunable phosphors Ce[Formula: see text]/Sm[Formula: see text] co-doped Sr3Gd(PO4)3 have been synthesized by a traditional solid-state method. These phosphors were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FE-SEM, diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), photoluminescence spectra and lifetime measurements. The quenching concentration of Ce[Formula: see text] ions in Sr3Gd(PO4)3 was about 9 mol.%. An effective energy transfer (ET) from Ce[Formula: see text] ions to Sm[Formula: see text] ions in Sr3Gd(PO4)3 was speculated by the overlapped spectrum for the emission peak of Ce[Formula: see text] and the excitation peak of Sm[Formula: see text] ions. It is demonstrated that the ET mechanism is resonant through the dipole–dipole interaction and the critical distance between Ce[Formula: see text] and Sm[Formula: see text] in Sr3Gd(PO[Formula: see text] is calculated to 15.22 Å. Moreover, Sr3Gd[Formula: see text](PO4)3:0.09Ce[Formula: see text], xSm[Formula: see text] can be adjusted systematically by generating blue light to white light in the CIE diagram which coincide with the ET process of Ce[Formula: see text] ions to Sm[Formula: see text] ions. The Sr3Gd[Formula: see text](PO4)3:0.09Ce[Formula: see text], 0.01Sm[Formula: see text] phosphor also perform at a good thermal stability. All of these experimental results in this work can be served as a potential multicolor tunable phosphor for ultraviolet pumped white light appliance.