Effect of annealing in hydrogen atmosphere on the photoluminescence properties of phosphor-in- glass in tellurate glass

Abstract

A series of phosphor-in-glasses (PIGs) was prepared by one-step melt-quenching method sintering the mixture of tellurate raw material powder and YAG:Ce3+ phosphors at 450–700°C, of which some was annealed at 250°C for 3h under the hydrogen atmosphere. The test results show that the relative photoluminescence (PL) intensity of phosphor-in-glass sintered at 450–700°C was significantly strengthened from 42.29% to 174.72% after the hydrogen annealing, and the relative photoluminescence excitation (PLE) intensity from 21.00% to 207.90%. However, the relative photoluminescence intensity of the PIG sintered at 700°C before and after hydrogen annealing was nearly zero because of the destruction of crystal structural surrounding Ce3+ ion. The concentration of Ce3+ and Ce4+ measured by X-ray photoelectron spectrum analyser (XPS) in PIGs before and after hydrogen annealing obviously happened to change, which was associated with the variation of PL and PL excitation intensity. Besides, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of YAG:Ce3+ phosphor and PIGs sintered at different temperatures further presented the destruction of YAG:Ce3+ lattice as the sintering temperature increased. Therefore, the appropriate sintering temperature and hydrogen annealing can increase the PL and PLE intensity and the Ce3+ concentration.