Photoluminescence performance of thulium doped Li4SrCa(SiO4)2 under irradiation of ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet lights

•A novel blue-emitting phosphor Li4SrCa(SiO4)2:Tm3+ was reported.•Li4SrCa(SiO4)2:Tm3+ exhibited excellent thermal and irradiation stability.•Li4SrCa(SiO4)2:Tm3+ was found to possess high color purity.

In this work, we synthesized Tm3+ doped Li4SrCa(SiO4)2 phosphors and investigated their photoluminescence properties under the excitation of ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet lights. The crystal structure analysis and variation of cell parameters confirm that Tm3+ ions have been successfully doped in the structure of Li4SrCa(SiO4)2 host by occupying the sites of Ca2+ with the coordination number of 6. The luminescence results suggest that Li4SrCa(SiO4)2:Tm3+ is a good blue-emitting phosphor when excited by ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet irradiations. In addition, it is observed that there is nearly no degradation for Li4SrCa(SiO4)2:Tm3+ after undergoing thermal and irradiation treatments. Possible mechanisms for the luminescence processes are proposed on the basis of the discussion of excitation and emission spectra. In particular, the emission color of Li4SrCa(SiO4)2:Tm3+ by excitation of 147 and 172 nm irradiations is very close to the standard blue color, suggesting that it could be potentially applied in plasma display panels and mercury-free fluorescence lamps.

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