Effect of annealing atmosphere and electron beam pre-irradiation on the properties of SrGa2S4:Eu phosphor films

Abstract Europium activated strontium thiogallate (SrGa2S4:Eu) phosphors were prepared by the deposition of SrS:Ga2S3:Eu films of about 1 μm thickness onto quartz glass substrates by two electron beam (EB) evaporation followed by irradiation with 900 keV accelerated electrons and subsequent annealing in either sulfur vapor or H2S(10%):Ar(90%) mixture at 900 °С. Annealing in vaporized sulfur provides a significantly higher crystallinity and PL intensity of the obtained phosphor films in comparison with annealing in H2S:Ar mixture. Preliminary irradiation is found to further increase the crystallinity and photoluminescence (PL) intensity of the subsequently annealed phosphors due to the formation of crystallization centers.