Chemical substitution effects of elements on photoluminescence properties of YAG:Ce phosphors using orthogonal experimental design

Abstract In this paper, the chemical substitution effects of elements on photoluminescence properties of YAG:Ce phosphors were studied by orthogonal experimental design. The controllable factors used in this design consisted of Tb 3+ , Ga 3+ , and Si 4+ substitution in YAG:Ce host. Emission intensities and wavelengths of as-obtained phosphors were regarded as the indexes of orthogonal experiment. The experimental results show that the emission spectra are blue-shifted by Si 4+ replaced Al 3+ and red-shifted by Tb 3+ substituted Y 3+ ; meanwhile, the emission intensity visibly depends on the addition of Si 4+ and Ga 3+ . The luminous efficiency is improved by proper elements substitution in YAG:Ce and the optimum composition (Y 2.74 Tb 0.2 Al 4.7 Si 0.1 Ga 0.2 :0.06Ce) shows good optical properties and has a great potential to substitute the commercial phosphors.