Luminescent properties of a green emitting persistent phosphor CdGeO3:Tb3+

•We investigate the energy transfer from the host to activators Tb3+ ions and concentration quenching for CdGeO3:Tb3+.•CdGeO3:Tb3+ gives a green long persistent luminescence.•We compared it with the commercial phosphor SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+.

A novel green persistent phosphor CdGeO3:Tb3+ is prepared successfully via the traditional solid state reaction method. The phase purity and morphology of CdGeO3:Tb3+ samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively.Energy transfer from host to activators Tb3+ occurs efficiently under excitation into the host absorption. CdGeO3:Tb3+ phosphors show a bright green luminescence under excitation with 311 nm. However, concentration quenching of Tb3+ in CdGeO3:Tb3+ occurs at a low content of 0.01 in this work. After the short UV-irradiation, CdGeO3:Tb3+ phosphors present excellent long persistent luminescence at room temperature. The optimal doping concentration of Tb3+ for the long persistent luminescence is about 0.005. The persistent luminescence mechanism of CdGeO3:Tb3+ is illustrated and discussed in detail on the basis of the experimental results.