A Single-Composition Trichromatic White-Light-Emitting Phosphor Based on Sr8ZnY(PO4)7 Coactivated with Ce3+, Tb3+, and Mn2+

Ce3+/Tb3+/Mn2+-codoped Sr8ZnY(PO4)(7) (SZYP) white-emitting phosphors have been synthesized via solid-state reaction technology. The overlapping spectra between the excitation bands of Mn2+ and Tb3+ ions and the emission band of Ce3+ suggest that Ce3+ -> Mn2+ and Ce3+ -> Tb3+ energy transfer occurs. The emission hues exhibited by Ce3+/Tb3+- and Ce3+/Mn2+-codoped phosphors could be modulated from bluish to greenish region and from bluish to reddish region by simply adjusting the relative content of Ce3+/Tb3+ and Ce3+/Mn2+, respectively. SZYP:Ce3+,Tb3+,Mn2+ samples exhibited three dominant bands at 410 nm, 545 nm, and 600 nm, attributable to electronic transitions of Ce3+, Tb3+, and Mn2+ ions, respectively. Thus, color-tunable emission was achieved by accurately modulating the concentrations of Ce3+, Tb3+, and Mn2+ ions. SZYP:0.05Ce(3+),0.11Mn(2+),0.11Tb(3+) was found to be an ideal white-light-emitting phosphor with color coordinates of (0.34, 0.33) and correlated color temperature of about 5144.83 K. The results indicate that Ce3+/Tb3+/Mn2+ -tridoped SZYP phosphors are potential single-component white-emitting candidates for application in ultraviolet- and white-light-emitting diodes.