Structural and photoluminescence properties of SrNb2O6: RE3+ (RE = Sm, Tb) phosphors for solid state lighting

Abstract

The phosphors for pc-LEDs have high thermal stability requirements due to the high operating temperature of LEDs. In addition, there are many phosphors based on SrNb2O6, but no one has studied Sm3+ or Tb3+ as the luminescent center of SrNb2O6 host. Therefore, two new phosphors based on SrNb2O6 host are proposed in this work. One is an orange phosphor with negative thermal quenching phenomenon using Sm3+ as the luminescent center, and the other is a green phosphor with Tb3+ as the luminescent center. In this work, a series of SrNb2O6:Sm3+ and SrNb2O6:Tb3+ phosphors were prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The structure, morphology, chemical composition, absorption properties and luminescence properties of Sm3+ and Tb3+ doped SrNb2O6 samples were studied. Under 405 nm excitation, the SrNb2O6:Sm3+ samples exhibit the 4f-4f transition of Sm3+ with the strongest emission intensity at 607 nm, the emission intensity of SrNb2O6:0.03Sm3+ phosphor at 150 °C remains at 100.56% of its room temperature value and the chromaticity coordinates are located in the orange region, with a color purity of 88.19%. Under 307 nm excitation, the SrNb2O6:Tb3+ samples exhibit the 4f-4f transition of Tb3+ with the strongest emission intensity at 544 nm, the emission intensity of SrNb2O6:0.09Tb3+ phosphor at 150 °C remains at 7.68% of its room temperature value and the chromaticity coordinates are located in the green region with a color purity of 74.29%. Additionally, Na+ is introduced as a charge compensator in the Sm3+ or Tb3+ doped phosphors, which enhances their luminescence intensity. These results indicate that the two phosphors synthesized in this work have the prospect of application in the field of solid-state lighting.