Interrupting the long-range energy migration among Eu3+ by the introduction of unequivalent [NaO8] units to achieve both high quenching concentration and quantum yield in NaY2Ga2InGe2O12

Abstract

In the pursuit of optimizing white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs), Eu3+-doped phosphors have emerged as a key component in strategies that combine ultraviolet (UV) LED chips with red, green, and blue (RGB) tricolor phosphors. However, their application has been notably constrained by concentration quenching and thermal quenching. To address this challenge, we have developed a series of novel red phosphors, NaY2-xGa2InGe2O12:xEu3+. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicates that the NaY2Ga2InGe2O12(NYGIG) belongs to the garnet family. The [NaO8] unit replaces one-third of the eight-coordinated sites of garnet and leaves the other two-thirds for the [YO8], which helps to prevent long-range energy migration among Eu3+ especially when the eight-coordinated sites were highly substituted. Such a structure feature allowed the NaY2-xGa2InGe2O12:xEu3+ phosphor to achieve an optimal quantum yield of 95.6% at an extremely high Eu3+ doping x value up to 1.2. Moreover, further studies on the temperature-dependent luminescence spectra confirm that an anomalous thermal quenching phenomenon will occur when the NaY2-xGa2InGe2O12:1.2Eu3+ phosphor is properly excited. In application, the combination of the red-emitting NaY2-xGa2InGe2O12:1.2Eu3+, blue-emitting BaMgAl10O17:Eu2+, and green-emitting Zn2SiO4:Mn2+ phosphors can realize high color rendering (CRI∼93) white light with the with CIE coordinates of (0.353,0.350), indicating that the NYGIG:Eu3+ phosphor own a promising potential for WLEDs.