Synthesis and photoluminescence characteristics of Ln3+ (Ln = Sm, Er and Dy)-doped BaGd2(MoO4)4 phosphors

Abstract BaGd 2 (MoO 4 ) 4 phosphor powders activated with the trivalent rare-earth Ln 3+ (Ln = Sm, Er and Dy) were synthesized by a traditional high temperature solid-state reaction. The resulted phosphors were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. XRD results demonstrate that Ln 3+ -doped samples can be well indexed to the pure monoclinic scheelite-type structure BaGd 2 (MoO 4 ) 4 . The photoluminescence investigations revealed that the phosphors exhibit apparent characteristic emissions from the 4 G 5/2 to 6 H 5/2, 7/2, 9/2 state for Sm 3+ , 2 H 11/2 and 4 S 3/2 state to the 4 I 15/2 ground state for Er 3+ , 4 I 15/2 , 4 F 9/2 to 6 H 15/2 and 4 F 9/2 to 6 H 13/2 for Dy 3+ under near ultraviolet excitation. BaGd 1.95 (MoO 4 ) 4 :0.05Sm 3+ , BaGd 1.93 (MoO 4 ) 4 :0.07Er 3+ and BaGd 1.90 (MoO 4 ) 4 :0.10Dy 3+ emit bright orange–red, green and white light with the CIE coordinates of (0.5381, 0.4544), (0.2307, 0.6096) and (0.3314, 0.3853) respectively. The sharp emission peaks and excellent luminescence properties show that BaGd 2 (MoO 4 ) 4 is a suitable host for rare earth doped phosphors, which may be potentially applied in the applications of the optical materials.