Cationic substitution induced tuning of photoluminescence in (Sr, Ba)P4O13:Eu2+ solid solution phosphors

Cationic substitution is an important and simple method for the tuning of photoluminescence in Eu2+ doped inorganic luminescence materials. In present work, Eu2+ doped alkaline earth metal tetraphosphate phosphors (Sr, Ba)P4O13:Eu2+ have been synthesized successfully by solid-state reaction at high temperature. XRD results indicated the formation of single-phase solid solution phosphors (not the mixture of Sr3P4O13:Eu2+ and Ba3P4O13:Eu2+). These phosphors shows the broad excitation band in the ultraviolet (UV) and near ultraviolet (NUV) region ascribed to be the allowed 4f-5d transition of Eu2+. By the progressive substitution of Sr by Ba, the emission maximum shows obvious red-shift from 404 nm to 468 nm upon excitation with UV light, which leads to the tunable photoluminescence of these solid solution phosphors. The obtained results indicated that the (Sr, Ba)P4O13:Eu2+ solid solution phosphors shows the potential application for white light-emitting diodes based on UV/NUV chips.