Preparation and characteristics of yellow ZnS:Mn,Ce phosphor

This paper presents the characteristics of ZnS:Mn,Ce phosphor prepared by solid-state sintering. The luminance of ZnS:Mn phosphor was improved via energy transfer mechanism by co-doping with Ce sensitizer. XRD measurements show that the crystallization of ZnS:Mn,Ce is essentially dependent on the sintering temperature. The cubic- and hexagonal-ZnS phases coexisted at a sintering temperature of 900 °C. The content of the hexagonal-ZnS phase is increased with increasing sintering temperature, and a complete conversion to the hexagonal-ZnS phase occurs at 1200 °C. Photoluminescence analyses reveal that the emission peak of ZnS:Mn,Ce phosphor is red-shifted with increasing doping concentration, and is blue-shifted with increasing sintering temperature. Enhanced emission is induced in ZnS:Mn,Ce phosphor by indirect excitation, in which the electrons in the ZnS host and Ce sensitizer absorb the excitation energy and transfer it to the Mn activator for yellow emission.