Exploration of bluish violet‐emitting phosphor Ca₃Al₄ZnO₁₀:Ti⁴⁺ with enhanced emission by Ca²⁺ vacancies

Abstract

In this paper, we introduced a bluish violet‐emitting phosphor Ca3Al4ZnO10:Ti (IV) (CAZO:Ti4+) synthesized by high‐temperature solid‐state reaction. Upon 265 nm excitation, a broad emission band spanned from 300 nm to 500 nm and centered at 370 nm was observed. In addition, the effects of flux and charge compensation to photoluminescence properties of CAZO:Ti4+ were systematically investigated. The results show that 103% improvement of emission intensity was achieved when 1% H3BO3 flux was introduced and 32.8% enhancement of it for 2% Ca2+ vacancies doped as charge compensator. Moreover, the lifetimes, band gap energy, concentration quenching mechanism, as well as electron transition process of CAZO:Ti4+ were discussed. Due to the efficient broad bluish violet emission, this phosphor may find a potential application in mercury vapor‐excited fluorescent lamp for plant growth.

Efficient Blue–Violet Phosphor with Small Stokes‐Shift for Full‐Spectrum Lighting

“…This means ΔS of the phosphors should be small enough to inhibit nonradiative energy loss during the emission process. [ 16 ] Indeed, most of the reported blue–violet phosphors can only be efficiently excited by the light shorter than 365 nm, such as Ca 2 MgSi 2 O 7 :Ce 3+ ( λ ex = 327 nm, λ em = 386 nm), [ 17 ] CaHfO 3 :Ce 3+ ( λ ex = 335 nm, λ em = 430 nm), [ 18 ] β ‐Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 :Ce 3+ ( λ ex = 269 nm, λ em = 400 nm) [ 19 ] and Ca 3 Al 4 ZnO 10 :Ti 4+ ( λ ex = 265 nm, λ em = 370 nm), [ 20 ] which severely limits their practical applications. In addition, phosphors with small ΔS are also important for other packaging technologies.…”