High-brightness and thermally-stable broadband green-emitting phosphors are highly demanded for the fabrication of high-quality phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) with high color rendering index (CRI) and low correlated color temperature (CCT). Herein, we report on the synthesis, luminescent properties, thermal stability and application of a novel highly efficient green-emitting Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:Ce3+ garnet-type phosphor for blue-chip-pumped high-CRI pc-WLEDs. A series of Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:Ce3+ green phosphors doped with various Ce3+ concentrations (0.5-4 mol%) have been prepared by a conventional high-temperature solid-state reaction approach. Impressively, the composition-optimized Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:2%Ce3+ sample exhibits a broad excitation band in the 400-500 nm spectral range with an excitation peak around 451 nm, and it gives rise to a bright broad green emission band in the 470-700 nm wavelength region (emission peak: 533 nm; bandwidth: 108 nm) with CIE color coordinates of (0.3361, 0.5640). Notably, high luminescence efficiency is obtained for Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:2%Ce3+ phosphor (internal quantum efficiency: 92.2%; external quantum efficiency: 50.7%). Moreover, it is also found that Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:2%Ce3+ shows excellent resistance to thermal quenching, while its emission intensity at 423 K remains 76% of the initial value at room temperature. Amazingly, the color stability of Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:2%Ce3+ is also outstanding, and only a very small chromaticity shift (3.99 × 10−3) is observed at 423 K. A high-performance pc-WLED device has been fabricated by using a 450 nm blue-emitting LED chip and as-prepared Lu1.5Ca1.5Al3.5Si1.5O12:2%Ce3+ green phosphor as well as commercial CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ red phosphor. Such device produces a bright warm-white emission under 280 mA driving current, demonstrating super CIE chromaticity coordinates (0.3870, 0.3818), high CRI of 93.8, low CCT of 3865 K, and high luminous efficacy (51.86 lmW-1).
Read full abstract