Optical transition and thermal quenching mechanism in CaSnO3:Eu3+ phosphors

•A red emitting phosphor of CaSnO3: Eu3+ is synthesized.•The Judd–Ofelt theory analysis has been applied to deal with the optical transition.•Thermal behavior is discussed in detail due to the temperature dependence population.

CaSnO3 phosphors doped with various Eu3+ concentrations are synthesized by a solid-state reaction. The crystal structure of the phosphors is identified by the XRD technique, and it is found that the pure phase CaSnO3 phosphor can be obtained when the Eu3+ doping concentration lower than 2 mol%. The emission spectra consisting of a group of sharp lines from blue to red light originating from 5D3,2,1,0 → 7FJ transitions of Eu3+ are observed in phosphors with various Eu3+ doping concentrations. The radiative lifetimes of 5D0 level are measured for the samples with various Eu3+ concentrations, and for the sample with 2 mol% Eu3+ at various temperatures. The oscillator strengths parameters (Judd–Ofelt parameters) Ωλ(λ = 2, 4, 6) of Eu3+ in CaSnO3 phosphors are calculated to be 3.21 × 10−20, 0.88 × 10−20 and 0.35 × 10−20 cm2. The photoluminescence excitation and photoluminescence spectra are measured in the temperature range 300–750 K. The thermo-dynamical behavior for 5D3, 5D2, 5D1 and 5D0 populations are analyzed based on the temperature-dependent emission spectra of 5DJ levels.