The luminescent properties of Pr3+ ion-doped BaY2ZnO5 phosphor under blue light irradiation

Abstract

In this study, a color-tunable green emitting phosphor, BaY2ZnO5, doped with Pr3+ ions, is synthesized using a solid-state reaction and its luminescence properties are investigated. The X-ray results show that the crystal structure of BaY2ZnO5:Pr3+ phosphor is an orthorhombic structure and no second phases are found, which indicates that a solid solution is formed easily when Pr3+ ions substitute the Y3+ ions. In the PL studies, the emission spectra shows that the 3P0→3H4,5,6 transitions are dominant for the Pr3+-doped BaY2ZnO5 phosphor under an excitation of 458nm. The numbers of phonons (ΔE/νmax) needed for non-radiative relaxation between 3P0 and 1D2 is approximately 6.7, which leads the multi-phonon relaxation to be not very efficient and a minor 1D2→3H4 transition is observed. The saturation of the emission intensity due to excitation by intra-4f transitions occurs at a concentration of x=0.01, which indicates that there is concentration quenching when x>0.01. The color tone changes from green to greenish and finally yellow, as the Pr3+ ion concentration increase.