Tunable full-color emitting borosilicate glasses via utilization of Ce3+ ions as multiple energy transfer contributors

Abstract A series of trichromatic/white-emitting 15CaO–55B 2 O 3 –30SiO 2 glasses co-doped with Ce 3 + /Tb 3 + /Mn 2 + were synthesized in air by a melt-quenching method. Ce 3 + ions played a role as sensitizers in improving the photoluminescence performance of multi-activators. Dual energy transfer (ET) processes of Ce 3 + → Tb 3 + and Ce 3 + → Mn 2 + were observed in Ce 3 + –Mn 2 + –Tb 3 + co-activated glasses. The hues of the fabricated glasses covered the regions from blue, green, to orange–red, and a wide-range-tunable warm white light emission was realized by tuning the ET proportion from excitation source to the co-activated Mn 2 + and Tb 3 + ions through utilizing Ce 3 + ions as the multi-sensitizers. It indicates that these glasses are expected to be potential phosphor candidates for deep UV-pumped white-LED.