Enhanced luminescence properties and energy transfer in novel Ce3+ and Tb3+ co-doped Na3La2(BO3)3 green-emitting phosphor

Abstract Novel Ce 3+ and Tb 3+ co-doped Na 3 La 2 (BO 3 ) 3 phosphor, synthesized by a solid state reaction in reductive atmosphere, exhibits enriched emission spectrum in the green region from 480 to 650 nm corresponding to a resonant energy transfer from the Ce 3+ (5d) level to Tb 3+ ( 5 D 3 ) level. The phase characterizations and luminescence properties of the phosphor were studied. The energy transfer mechanism has been demonstrated to be an electric dipole–dipole interaction. The experimental result shows that the optimum Ce 3+ and Tb 3+ doping concentrations are 15 at% and 10 at% respectively. The novel phosphor shows remarkable CIE chromaticity coordinates, indicating its potential application of green-emitting phosphor in white light-emitting diodes (w-LEDs).