Photoluminescence of Trivalent Europium Ion Doped GdAl_3 (BO_3)_4 Phosphor

Single phase of Gd1-xEuxAl3(BO3)4 (0≤ x ≤1) was obtained by the evaporation of its nitrate solution, and calcinations at 1000℃ for 24h. Ultraviolet (UV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) luminescent properties of Eu3+ in GdAl3(BO3)4 were systematically studied. In GdAl3(BO3)4:Eu3+, rare earths are located in noncentrosymmetric sites, and the predominant emission of Eu3+ is 5D0→7 F2. GdAl3(B03)4:Eu3+ shows intense red emission with CIE chro-maticity coordinates of (0.645, 0.330) under 147nm excitation, it indicates that this phosphor is a promising new luminescent material for application in plasma display panel (PDP). The VUV excitation spectra of activated GdAl3 (BO3)4:Eu3+ are composed of two broad bands. The 158nm excitation band is assigned to the energy level of BO3 groups and the other band centered at 258nm is assigned to the charge transfer transition between Eu3+ and O2-. The GdAl3(BO3)4:Eu3+ shows maximum intensity emission for the doped 50at% of Eu3+ under 258nm excitation and 5at% of Eu3+ under 147nm excitation, respectively. Therefore, the energy relaxation pathway to the Eu3+ sites should be different.