A novel red-emitting phosphor for white light-emitting diodes

A novel red-emitting phosphor of Eu3+-activated molybdate was prepared at 850 °C by a modified solid-state reaction. Photoluminescence (PL) results showed that the phosphor can be efficiently excited by UV–visible light from 350 to 550 nm, and exhibited bright red emission at 614 nm. XPS are taken to investigate the structure and compositions of this material. The crystallization and particle sizes of the phosphor have been investigated by using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM images show that the grain size of the phosphor is about 30 nm which is in full agreement with the theoretical calculation data from the XRD patterns.