Photoluminescence of Tb 3+ and Mn 2+ activated Ca 8MgGd(PO 4) 7 under vacuum ultraviolet excitation

Abstract

Novel Tb 3+ and Mn 2+ activated Ca 8MgGd(PO 4) 7 phosphors were synthesized by solid-state reaction and their photoluminescence properties in vacuum ultraviolet region were investigated for the first time. It can be observed from the excitation spectra that the host-related absorption band is located around 170 nm, and it overlaps the O 2− → Tb 3+ charge transfer band of Ca 8MgGd(PO 4) 7:Tb 3+ around 161 nm and the 3d 5 → 3d 44s transition band of Ca 8MgGd(PO 4) 7:Mn 2+ near 200 nm. The 4f–4f 5d spin-allowed and spin-forbidden transitions of Tb 3+ are verified to be located at 170–250 and 257–271 nm, respectively. Upon 147 nm excitation, the dominant emission peak intensity of the Ca 8MgGd 0.1(PO 4) 7:0.9Tb 3+ phosphor is about 2.7 times stronger than that of the commercial Zn 2SiO 4:Mn 2+ green phosphor, and the brightness of the former with a short decay time of 2.5 ms is about 98% of the latter’s. The Ca 8MgGd(PO 4):Mn 2+ phosphor excited at 147 nm exhibits a deep red emission around 650 nm, which could be attributed to the 4T 1 → 6A 1 transition of Mn 2+, with the CIE index (0.679, 0.321). In a word, the results above indicate that both Tb 3+ and Mn 2+ activated Ca 8MgGd(PO 4) 7 phosphors could be promising for PDP or Hg-free lamp applications.