Luminescence of rare-earth ions in perovskite-type oxides: from basic research to applications

Luminescence of a rare-earth ion in SrTiO3 or other perovskite-type oxides was used as a probe of physical properties of a host crystal, but not as a phosphor because observed luminescence efficiency was low. Recent investigations have shown that the luminescence efficiency of SrTiO3:Pr3+ is intensified up to 200 times by addition of Al ions. This paper reviews experimental results on this phenomenon and discusses mechanism of the Al-addition effect. A survey was made to find other materials, the efficiency of which can be improved by the impurity addition. Host-to-activator energy transfer by a coupling of the band-edge recombination energy and an allowed transition of a rare-earth ion is essential to provide a high efficiency. A red phosphor, Al-added SrTiO3:Pr3+, is promising for display applications.