Abstract
Sulfide-based luminescent materials have attracted a lot of attention for a wide range of photo-, cathodo- and electroluminescent applications. Upon doping with Ce3+ and Eu2+, the luminescence can be varied over the entire visible region by appropriately choosing the composition of the sulfide host. Main application areas are flat panel displays based on thin film electroluminescence, field emission displays and ZnS-based powder electroluminescence for backlights. For these applications, special attention is given to BaAl2S4:Eu, ZnS:Mn and ZnS:Cu. Recently, sulfide materials have regained interest due to their ability (in contrast to oxide materials) to provide a broad band, Eu2+-based red emission for use as a color conversion material in white-light emitting diodes (LEDs). The potential application of rare-earth doped binary alkaline-earth sulfides, like CaS and SrS, thiogallates, thioaluminates and thiosilicates as conversion phosphors is discussed. Finally, this review concludes with the size-dependent luminescence in intrinsic colloidal quantum dots like PbS and CdS, and with the luminescence in doped nanoparticles.
Highlights
Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots (Qdots) offer an interesting alternative to Ce3+- or Eu2+- doped bulk sulfide materials
Given that the T0.5 has been reported at 475 K for CaS:Eu and 320 K for SrS:Eu [159], it is questionable whether Ca1-xSrxS:Eu phosphors with higher Sr concentrations are ideal for use in light emitting diodes (LEDs)
The sulfides possess specific properties which made them especially suited as powder electroluminescent phosphor or as thin film electroluminescent material, where one should highlight the yellow-orange-emitting ZnS:Mn and the blue BaAl2S4:Eu phosphor
Summary
Luminescent phenomena have fascinated mankind since the earliest times. The light from the aurora borealis, glow worms, luminescent wood, rotting fish and meat are all examples of naturally occurring luminescence. After heating the ground stone under reducing condition he– obviously – did not obtain gold, but a persistent luminescent material. This so-called Bolognian stone became famous and a subject of study and admiration for decades to come [3]. It is not clear which dopant or dopants were responsible for the persistent luminescence, but the host material [2] definitely was BaS. Many scientists synthesized and investigated luminescent materials, but it was too early for a systematic study. In 1888, Eilhard Wiedemann was the first to classify different classes of phosphors according to the type of excitation, and is credited for introducing the terms luminescence, photoluminescence, electroluminescence, thermoluminescence, crystalloluminescence, triboluminescence and chemiluminescence [6]
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