Synthesis and photoluminescent properties of Gd3O4Br:Er3+ phosphors prepared by solid-state reaction method

Pure orthorhombic Gd3O4Br:Er3+ upconversion phosphors were synthesized by a solid-state reaction method and the structural properties of Gd3O4Br:Er3+ were investigated by X-ray diffraction; field emission scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show that Gd3O4Br has low phonon cutoff energy, indicating that Gd3O4Br:Er3+ may have high luminescent efficiency. Intense green (514-582 nm) and strong red (645-692 nm) upconverted luminescence of Gd3O4Br:Er3+ were observed under 980 nm laser excitation. The bright green emission is visible to the naked eyes even for 1 mW of the pump power (980 nm) for Gd3O4Br:Er3+ (0.1%) samples, indicating that Gd3O4Br:Er3+ may be used as upconversion phosphors.