Luminescence and energy transfer of white-light emitting :, phosphors

A novel white-light emitting CaAl2SiO6: Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphor has been prepared by a sol–gel method. X-ray diffractometry and spectrofluorometry were used to characterize structural and optical properties of the samples. The results indicate that the crystal structure of the phosphor is a single phase of CaAl2SiO6. The excitation band of the phosphor covers a wide region from 240 nm to 380 nm. CaAl2SiO6: Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphors show four emission bands: one at 400 nm for Ce3+ and three at 487 nm, 543 nm and 585 nm for Tb3+. With appropriate tuning of Tb3+ content, white light with different hues can be achieved under UV radiation. The energy transfer mechanism from Ce3+ to Tb3+ in CaAl2SiO6 host was demonstrated to be dipole–dipole interaction.