Investigation of luminescence properties and the energy transfer mechanism of Li6Lu(BO3)3:Ce3+, Tb3+ green-emitting phosphors

Abstract

Li₆Lu(BO₃)₃:Ce³⁺, Tb³⁺ phosphor was synthesized via a conventional solid-state method. The phase purity, photoluminescence properties, energy transfer mechanism, thermal stability and chromaticity coordinates were investigated. The absorption spectrum was comprised of broad bands in the UV region and the emission spectrum was consisted of characteristic peaks from both Ce³⁺ and Tb³⁺ under UV excitation. The amount of Ce³⁺ was fixed to 3 mol% while Tb³⁺ was varied from 20 to 80 mol% and the chromaticity coordinates were tuned from the blue to green region. The energy transfer mechanism between Ce³⁺ and Tb³⁺ was attributed to a quadrupole–quadrupole interaction and the critical distance was measured to be 8.12 Å. The overall performance of the phosphor was enhanced by the efficient energy transfer between Ce³⁺ and Tb³⁺ ions.