Photoluminescence properties of Pr3+ ion-doped YInGe2O7 phosphor under an ultraviolet irradiation

Pr3+ ion-doped YinGe2O7 phosphors are synthesized by a vibrating milled solid state reaction. There is a red shift for the excitation peak for the charge transfer transition between In3+ and O2- ion because the numbers of oxygen vacancies change the structure, which leads to a change in the crystal field. The results indicate that the emission spectra for the YinGe2O7:Pr samples under an excitation of 263 nm exhibit two dominant peaks at 486 and 604 nm, which are respectively assigned to the 3P0→3H4 and 1D2→3H4 transitions. The chromaticity coordinate for (Y1−xPrx)InGe2O7 phosphors varies with the Pr3+ doping concentration, from white, to greenish, to blueish. This has a potential application as a white light emitting phosphor for ultraviolet light-emitting diodes.