Facile synthesis, morphology and tunable photoluminescence properties of BaMgF4:Ce3+/Tb3+/Eu3+ phosphors†
Abstract
A series of BaMgF4:Ce3+/Tb3+/Eu3+ phosphors were successfully prepared via a facile hydrothermal process. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), n-UV–UV-vis photoluminescence (PL) and fluorescence decays were employed to investigate the structure, composition, morphology, luminescence properties and energy transfer processes. The as-prepared BaMgF4 phosphors exhibit a rod-like morphology and the size of the product can be effectively regulated by changing the amount of NH4F in the original solution. Under n-UV–UV light excitation, the Ce3+, Tb3+ and Eu3+ singly-doped BaMgF4 phosphors all show good characteristic luminescence; the Ce3+–Tb3+ and Tb3+–Eu3+ co-doped BaMgF4 phosphors both show tunable emission colors from blue (green) to green (orange-red) because of the energy transfer of Ce3+ → Tb3+ and Tb3+ → Eu3+, respectively. Moreover, the efficient energy transfer from Ce3+ (Tb3+) to Tb3+ (Eu3+) ions in the co-doped samples was confirmed by investigating the excitation/emission spectra and decay lifetimes. The results indicate that the phosphors may be potentially used as single-component multi-color phosphors for white light-emitting diodes.