Research of green emitting rare-earth doped materials as potential quantum-cutter

Abstract Because the energy of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons emitted by xenon plasma discharge is more than twice that of visible photons, quantum cutting appears to be a promising process in rare-earth doped materials in order to obtain efficient phosphors for mercury free lighting devices as well as for plasma display panels. With an aim of application, it is important to take into account the emitting color of the developed new phosphors. Most of the time, this leads to use systems with at least two kinds of rare earth ions: one of them playing the role of energy sensitizer, and the other one being in charge of emitting the light of the suitable color. We focus our attention on green rare-earth doped materials. In order to get very efficient phosphors, it is not only necessary to get the highest possible quantum yield, but also to have a material characterized by a strong absorption in the VUV range. Borate and fluoride matrices doped with Dy3+/Tb3+ couples of ions are selected according to the position of the 5d band of dysprosium as green emitters.