Dy3+ Doped Ca9Gd(PO4)7: a novel single-phase full-color emitting phosphor

• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-018-8638-7
• Publication Date: 2018-01-23T00:31:14Z
• Authors: Lurong Yang; Zhongfei Mu; Shaoan Zhang; Qiang Wang; Daoyun Zhu; Yu Zhao; Dongxiang Luo; Qingtian Zhang; Fugen Wu
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

A series of un-doped and Dy3+ doped Ca9Gd(PO4)7 phosphors were synthesized by traditional solid state reactions. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electronic microscope observation were carried out to examine the phase formation and morphology of prepared samples. Emission spectra under the excitation at 350 nm ultraviolet light turn out that main emission bands are located at 480, 570 and 659 nm, which can be assigned to the optical transitions 4F9/2 → 6H15/2, 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 and 4F9/2 → 6H11/2 of Dy3+, respectively. Comparison of emission spectra upon excitation of 273 nm between un-doped and Dy3+ doped Ca9Gd(PO4)7 samples proves that effective energy transfer from Gd3+ to Dy3+ takes place. The Commission International de I’Eclairage color coordinates (0.272, 0.322) located in white region was achieved. With the increasing doping concentration of Dy3+, concentration quenching is clearly observed and the optimum content of doped Dy3+ is 0.12. The mechanism of concentration quenching is experimentally ascertained to be electric dipole–dipole interactions. The study of quantum efficiency and thermal stability shows that our phosphors have higher quantum efficiency and better thermal stability. This work indicates that our phosphors have potential applications in white light-emitting diodes.