Synthesis and luminescent properties of Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphors for warm white light emitting diodes

A series of Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphors were successfully synthesized by a precipitation method. The pure Tb3Al5O12 phase was obtained in the synthesized Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphors after heat treatments at 500 °C in air for 3 h. The excitation spectra of Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphors include excitation bands corresponding to Tb3+ and Ce3+ ions. Under the excitation at 455 nm, Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphors show emission band at around 553 nm. The critical doping concentration of Ce3+ in Tb3Al5O12 is 6mol%, which shows the highest emission intensity. White light-emitting diodes were fabricated by combining InGaN-based blue light-emitting diodes with Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ and Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ phosphors. The Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ based white light-emitting diode shows a lower color temperature than that of Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ based white light-emitting diode. The experimental results clearly indicate that the prepared Tb3Al5O12:Ce3+ has potential applications in white light emitting diodes.