Crystal structure and luminescence properties of a novel red Ca3GdNa(PO4)3F:Eu3+ phosphor for white LEDs

A series of Eu3+ doped novel Ca3GdNa(PO4)3F phosphors have been prepared via a high temperature solid state reaction. The crystal structure, morphology and luminescence properties were studied. The excitation spectra showed that samples can be efficiently excited by 395 nm, which indicated that it can be used for NUV LEDs. The PL spectra showed that the optimal doping concentration of Eu3+ was 0.6. The quenching mechanism was determined to be the dipole-dipole interaction between Eu3+ ions. The CIE value of Ca3GdNa(PO4)3F:0.6Eu3+ sample reaches (0.654, 0.346), which is close to the NTSC standard (0.67, 0.33). In addition, the phosphor has a relatively high quantum efficiency of 40%. The results suggest that the prepared phosphors combined other phosphor or chips will have a potential application in w-LEDs.