A novel aluminum-oxynitride phosphor Mg0·695Si0·695Al1·39O3·65N0.35: Ce3+, Tb3+, Mn2+ based on cation substitution with double sites related multicolor-tunable luminescence

Abstract

A new aluminum-oxynitride Ce3+-Tb3+ and Ce3+-Mn2+ co-doped Mg0·695Si0·695Al1·39O3·65N0.35 (MSAON) have been prepared by the high-temperature solid-state method at 1500 °C. The structure, photoluminescence properties, energy transfer (ET) mechanism, thermal quenching behaviors have been investigated. The MSAON host has been formed based on the co-substitution method of cation pair. Under UV excitation, the tunable-color emissions from violet to green and red can be realized by properly doping Ce3+/Tb3+/Mn2+ ions. In addition, the type of ET mechanism from Ce3+ to Tb3+ and Mn2+ both are confirmed to be electric dipole-quadrupole interaction. However, as temperature increases, the emission intensity of Tb3+ in MSAON: Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphor occurs a significantly rising trend until 493 K, which is caused by increasing energy transfer from Ce3+ to Tb3+ due to the effect of enhanced electron–phonon coupling with rising temperature. This property may be helpful for the investigation of ratiometric optical thermometry. Meanwhile, the MSAON: Ce3+, Mn2+ phosphor shows an excellent thermal stability, maintaining 84.25% of initial intensity at 423 K. The results suggest that they could be feasible multicolor-tunable emission phosphors for potential applications for near -UV WLEDs.