Synthesis and luminescent properties of CaTiO3:Eu3+, Al3+ phosphors

CaTiO3:Eu3+, Al3+ phosphors were synthesized by a sol–gel method at a relatively low calcination temperature of 1000 °C. Upon excitation under UV light of wavelength 397 nm, all the CaTiO3:Eu3+ phosphors show bright red emission due to the 4f–4f transitions in Eu3+ ions. With the co-doping of Al3+ ions, we observed enhancement in the emission intensity at 616 nm. Furthermore, the addition of Al3+ was found to improve the color purity of phosphor. With the addition of 3 mol% Al3+ ions, the color purity of Ca0.95Ti0.97O3:Eu0.053+,Al0.033+ was found to improve from 83.1% to 84.9%, with the emission intensity almost equal to that of the Ca0.90TiO3:Eu3+0.10 phosphor. These results suggest that the Ca0.95Ti0.97O3:Eu0.053+,Al0.033+ red phosphor prepared in this study is a potential candidate for the fabrication of near-UV InGaN-based light-emitting diodes.