Structure, electronic properties, luminescence and chromaticity investigations of rare earth doped KMgBO3 phosphors

•The electronic properties of the host matrix KMgBO3 were investigated.•The PL properties on rare earth ions doped KMgBO3 phosphors were studied.•The chromaticity properties on rare earth ions doped KMgBO3 samples were studied.•Tm3+ and Eu3+ doped KMgBO3 samples show higher color purity than commercial phosphors.

In this work, the optimization of the geometry and the electronic properties of the host matrix KMgBO3 were investigated using density functional theory, and the comprehensive photoluminescence and chromaticity properties on five rare earth ion-doped (RE = Ce3+, Tm3+, Tb3+, Eu3+, Dy3+) KMgBO3 phosphors were also studied. By introducing RE ions into the KMgBO3 host, excellent purple, blue, green, red and white emitting light could be obtained under the near-ultraviolet light excitation. The results suggest that rare earth doped KMgBO3 phosphors are potential luminescence materials for the application in the near-ultraviolet white light-emitting diodes.

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