Tunable whole visible region color emission, enhancing emission intensity and persistent performance of a self-activated phosphor:Na2CaSn2Ge3O12

Abstract The composition and tunable luminescence properties of garnet phosphors are flexible because of their unique A3B2C3O12 structure. Garnet phosphors with tailored luminescence properties can be designed by varying in the A, B, and C cation sublattices. In this research, the self-activated long-persistent phosphor (LPP) Na2CaSn2Ge3O12 (NCSG) was successfully synthesized by a solid-state method. A series of dopants (Mn2+, Pr3+, Tb3+, and Dy3+) were selected as single-component emitters to tailor the emission color of the NCSG phosphor. NCSG emits in yellow at ~ 560 nm and in the near-infrared at ~ 790 nm with long-persistent luminescence (PersL). By doping with these ions, the PersL of the NCSG was significantly improved, and various colors covering the entire visible region from violet to the near-infrared were obtained. The trap types and depths were examined by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and the thermo-luminescence (TL) glow curves. The EPR signals revealed that oxygen vacancies are the trap centers. The TL glow curves showed that the intrinsic and extrinsic luminescence centers both act as charge carrier recombination centers. Furthermore, the PersL mechanism of the NCSG and NCSG:R (R = Mn2+, Pr3+, Tb3+ and Dy3+) phosphors was discussed in detail. The strategies employed in this work can be an effective way to fabricate new multi-wavelength, garnet-based LPPs with potential applications.