Luminescence property of Sm3+-doped Ca10K(PO4)7 red phosphor

A series of Ca10-2xK1+xSmx (PO4)7 (x = 0–0.06) powders have been fabricated with solid state reaction methods and their luminescence property is studied for the first time. X-ray diffractometry analysis indicates that the synthesised powders are all single phase Ca10K(PO4)7 with rhombohedral structure and the doped Sm3+ ions have not caused any significant change in the host structure, indicating Sm3+ ions are incorporated into the Ca10K(PO4)7 structure. Scanning electron microscopy micrograph indicates that powders have uniform granular morphology with an average particle size about 250–500 nm that decreases with increasing Sm3+ concentration. The synthesised powders show red emissions at 563.8 nm, 604.0nm, and 649.2 nm that reaches maximal intensity at Sm3+ concentration of 3 at.%.