Robust red-emitting glass phosphors with high color purity achieved through a novel energy transfer pathway in Pr3+/Sm3+ co-activation

Abstract

For the first time, a series of Pr3+/Sm3+ co-activated Multicomponent Borosilcate glasses were prepared by melt-quench technique with a fixed concentration of Pr3+ ions (0.5 mol%) and varied concentrations of Sm3+ ions (0.1–1 mol%). An energy transfer route is predicted from the spectral overlap diagram of absorption band (Pr3+:3H4→1D2) and emission (Sm3+:4G5/2→6H5/2, 4G5/2→6H7/2) bands of the singly doped glasses. A comprehensive analysis of photoluminescence features imparted by the Pr3+/Sm3+ co-activation in Multicomponent Borosilcate glasses was investigated with 402 and 444 nm excitation wavelengths and confirmed the existence of energy transfer from Pr3+ to Sm3+ ions with red light emission of high color purity (100 %). Decay profiles and colorimetry analysis further revealed that this dazzling red luminescence feature, achieved via novel energy transfer pathways in the as-prepared glasses, could be useful for red emission applications.