Exploration of the structural and optical properties of a red-emitting phosphor K2TiF6:Mn4+**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11574220), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. SWU118055), and the Special Program for Applied Research on Super Computation of the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund (the second phase), China.

Abstract

The exploration of the appropriate red phosphor with good luminescence properties is an important issue in the development of current white light-emitting diode (WLED) devices. Transition metal Mn-doped compounds are fascinating luminescent materials. Herein, we performed a systematic theoretical study of the microstructure and optical properties of K2TiF6:Mn4+ using the CALYPSO structure search method in combination with first-principles calculations. We uncovered a novel structure of K2TiF6:Mn4+ with space group P-3m1 symmetry, where the impurity Mn4+ ions are accurately located at the center of the MnF6 octahedra. Based on our developed complete energy matrix diagonalization (CEMD) method, we calculated transition lines for 2Eg → 4A2, 4A2 → 4T2, and 4A2 → 4T2 at 642, nm, 471 nm, and 352 nm, respectively, which are in good agreement with the available experimental data. More remarkably, we also found another transition (4A2 → 2T2) that lies at 380 nm, which should be a promising candidate for laser action.