Luminescence properties of red-emitting Ca9Y(PO4)7: Eu3+ phosphor for NUV white-LEDs

• Pure Ca9Y(PO4)7 can be obtained as the annealing temperature is higher than 1100 °C.
• The optimum concentration of Eu3+-doped in the Ca9Y(PO4)7 is 13 mol%.
• Concentration quenching mechanism is suggested to be dipole–quadrupole interaction.
• The CIE chromaticity coordinate of Ca9Y(PO4)7:0.13Eu3+ phosphor is (0.650, 0.349).

Ca9Y(PO4)7:Eu3+ phosphors have been prepared by solid state reaction. X-ray diffractometer, spectrofluorometer and UV–Vis spectrometer were used to characterize structural and optical properties of the samples. The results indicate that single-phase trigonal Ca9Y(PO4)7:Eu3+ can be obtained when the calcination temperature is higher than 1100 °C. The optimum concentration of Eu3+-doped in the Ca9Y(PO4)7 is 13 mol%. The CIE chromaticity coordinate of Ca9Y(PO4)7:0.13Eu3+ phosphor (0.650, 0.349) is close to National Television Standard Committee (NTSC) standard value for red phosphor (0.670, 0.330).