Enhanced luminescence properties and energy transfer in novel Ce3+ and Tb3+ co-doped Na3La2(BO3)3 green-emitting phosphor

Novel Ce3+ and Tb3+ co-doped Na3La2(BO3)(3) phosphor, synthesized by a solid state reaction in reductive atmosphere, exhibits enriched emission spectrum in the green region from 480 to 650 nm corresponding to a resonant energy transfer from the Ce3+ (5d) level to Tb3+ (D-5(3)) level. The phase characterizations and luminescence properties of the phosphor were studied. The energy transfer mechanism has been demonstrated to be an electric dipole-dipole interaction. The experimental result shows that the optimum Ce3+ and Tb3+ doping concentrations are 15 at% and 10 at% respectively. The novel phosphor shows remarkable CIE chromaticity coordinates, indicating its potential application of green-emitting phosphor in white light-emitting diodes (w-LEDs). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.