Red afterglow and luminescence arising from defects in CaS:Eu2+, Tm3+

Abstract

CaS:Eu2+, Tm3+ is a phosphor known to emit a long afterglow of red emission (650 nm) when excited by blue light (450 nm). It shows a long afterglow time of 700 s for Eu = 0.05% and Tm = 2%. The mechanism of this afterglow is investigated using time-resolved fluorescence (TR-F) spectroscopy from the nanosecond to millisecond region. At room temperature, it is not possible to investigate shallow levels because of the effects of thermal vibrations. The mechanism of the emission characteristics at room temperature would be affected by these levels that can be observed only at low temperatures. Therefore, the samples are cooled to 15 K for the TR-F measurements. The host material CaS emits blue light (420 nm) arising from sulfur defects, and the typical decay time is measured to be 6 ms. This blue emission becomes stronger when Tm3+ is doped. Furthermore, the doped Eu ions emit a broad red spectrum at 650 nm originating from the Eu2+-specific 4f65d1–4f7 transition. When the excitation is ceased, the red emission decays with a fast time constant of 0.6 μs. This value is a typical decay time for Eu2+. This red emission has multiple decay time constants, and a component with a decay time of 6 ms appears. This 6 ms decay time is the same as that of the blue emission from the sulfur defects, which have an important role on the red afterglow.