Luminescence properties and energy transfer of Sm3+/Tb3+ co-doped glass ceramics containing Na9YSi6O18

Abstract

The Na2O-Y2O3-SiO2 glass with Tb3+ doped and Sm3+/Tb3+ co-doped was prepared by the melt-quenching, the glass ceramics containing Na9YSi6O18 crystal phase were prepared by two-step heat treatment. The structure, morphology, luminescence properties and fluorescence lifetimes were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmittance, photoluminescence spectra (PL), respectively. The research indicates that the nuclear temperature of glass ceramics is 550 °C and the time for 1 h, the optimum crystalline temperature is 620 °C, and the optimum crystalline time is 40 min. Moreover, the effect of Tb2O3 concentration on the luminescence properties of the glass ceramics were discussed. When the concentration of Tb2O3 was 0.5 mol%, the brightest green light was obtained at 547 nm (5D4→7F5). Meanwhile, the energy transfer process between Tb3+ and Sm3+was discussed in detail. Under the excitation of 376 nm, the white light can be obtained by adjusting the concentration ratio of Tb3+ and Sm3+. These results indicate that Sm3+/Tb3+ co-doped glass ceramics play an important role in the field of white light-emitting diodes (w-LEDs).