Phosphors
with the emission spectra located at the biological window
I (650–950 nm) are significant for biological imaging. In this
work, a series of deep red and near-infrared phosphors InMgGaO4: xCr3+ and In0.9‑y
MgGaO4: 0.1Cr3+, yAl3+ are designed and successfully synthesized by a high
temperature solid state method. InMgGaO4 is selected as
the host considering its special crystal structure that one of the
Mg/Ga–O bonds is affected by the surrounding environment. Therefore,
when Cr3+ is substituted into the lattice, the longer Mg/Ga–O
bonds are easily broken, which provides a tunable crystal field. The
emission spectra of InMgGaO4: xCr3+ cover from 650 to 1200 nm, including one sharp line emission
peak (peak 1) and two broad emission bands (peak 2 and peak 3). The
Racha parameters D
q/B and the decay curves are analyzed to distinguish the origins of
these three peaks. Meanwhile, these three emission peaks show different
degrees of red shift, which is related to the covalency, crystal field
splitting (D
q), bond breaking of Mg/Ga–O,
and decrease of band gap. However, comparing with the luminescent
property of Cr3+ single doped samples, In0.9‑y
MgGaO4: 0.1Cr3+, yAl3+ shows a contrasting luminescence property and the
reason is analyzed. In summary, the emission spectra of these samples
can be tuned between a narrow peak and broad band continuously by
controlling the concentration of Cr3+ ions or Al3+ ions, which shows a potential application in biological imaging.