Red Photoluminescence from Bi3+and the Influence of the Oxygen-Vacancy Perturbation in ScVO4: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study

Abstract

We report on a red-emitting ScVO4:Bi3+ phosphor which does not show excitation at energies below 2.88 eV (430 nm). X-ray diffraction, time-resolved, and quantitative photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were employed to characterize relations between crystal structure and luminescence properties of the material. Results show that incorporation of Bi3+ renders the blue photoemission of blank ScVO4 to red. Dynamic luminescence analysis between 10 and 300 K reveals a complicated dependence of energy transfer from VO43– groups to Bi3+ ions and population redistribution of 3P1 and 3P0 of Bi3+ on temperature. This reflects in distinct changes in the luminescence decay functions. That is, a dramatic decrease of Bi3+ luminescence lifetime occurs from hundreds to only several microseconds. Density functional theory is employed to reveal how the unusual red Bi3+ luminescence comes, and results indicate that the perturbation of oxygen vacancies which is generated readily when bismuth precipitates into ScVO4 is the re...