Efficient energy transfer and fluorescence in SrYAl3O7:Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphor

A green light emitting phosphor SrYAl3O7:Ce3+, Tb3+ have been synthesized by fast solution combustion route. Structural and photoluminescence properties with energy transfer (ET) mechanism were investigated. Due to the ET from Ce3+ to Tb3+, enhancement in the emission intensity of Tb3+ is observed. The prepared phosphors exhibit both the weak emission of Ce3+ (5d-4f) and the strong emission of Tb3+ (5D4-7FJ) with considerable emission intensity. The ET mechanism from Ce3+ to Tb3+ ion has been determined to be dipole-dipole interaction, and the ET efficiency is obtained over 81%. The effect of Ce3+ and Tb3+ concentrations on luminescence intensity in single and co-doped phosphors are also studied. The phosphor has remarkable CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.198, 0.532), which indicate that Ce3+ and Tb3+ co-doped SrYAl3O7 phosphor may be potential UV-convertible candidate with green light emitting for w-LEDs.