Luminescence properties and energy transfer investigations of Zn2P2O7: Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphor

Abstract

A novel green light emitting phosphor Zn2P2O7: Ce3+, Tb3+ was synthesized by the traditional solid state reaction method at 850°C. The crystal structure, photoluminescence properties, thermal stability and luminous efficiency were investigated. Co-doping of Ce3+ enhanced the emission intensity of Tb3+ greatly by transferring its energy to Tb3+. Through an efficient energy transfer process, the obtained phosphors exhibit both the weak emission of Ce3+ (5d–4f) and the strong emission of Tb3+ (5D4–7FJ) with considerable intensity. The energy transfer mechanism from Ce3+ to Tb3+ ion was determined to be dipole–dipole interaction, and the energy transfer efficiency was over 90%. The effect of Ce3+ and Tb3+ concentrations on luminescence in single and co-doped phosphors was also studied. The novel phosphors have excellent thermal stability and remarkable CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.3149, 0.5652), which points to its high potential as green emitting phosphor in lighting field.