Tuning of phosphor luminescence properties, including the emission energy/intensity and thermal stability, is an important way to develop superior luminescent materials for diverse applications. In this work, we discuss the effect of band gap engineering and energy transfer on the luminescence properties of Ce³⁺ or Pr³⁺ doped (Y,Gd)AGG systems, and analyze the underlying reasons for their different phenomena. By using VUV-UV excitation spectra and constructing VRBE schemes, the changes of host band structure, 5d excited level energies and emission thermal stability of Ce³⁺ and Pr³⁺ with the incorporation of Gd³⁺ ions were studied. In addition, the energy transfer dynamics was also investigated in terms of the luminescence decay curves. This work demonstrates a way to tune phosphor luminescence properties by combining band gap engineering and energy transfer tailoring and provides an inspiring discussion on the different results of Gd³⁺ doping on the Ce³⁺ and Pr³⁺ emissions.

RbBaPO4:Eu2+ phosphors have been prepared by a high-temperature solid-state reaction method, and the structure was determined by Rietveld refinement based on powder X-ray diffraction (P-XRD) data. Their VUV-UV-vis photoluminescence properties are systematically investigated with three objectives: (1) based on low-temperature spectra, we clarify the site occupancies of Eu2+, and demonstrate that the doublet emission bands at ∼406 and ∼431 nm originate from Eu2+ in Ba2+ [Eu2+(I)] and Rb+ [Eu2+(II)] sites, respectively; (2) an electron-vibrational interaction (EVI) analysis is conducted to estimate the Huang-Rhys factors, the zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) and the Stokes shifts of Eu2+ in Rb+ and Ba2+ sites; (3) the studies on luminescence decay of Eu2+(I) reveal that dipole-dipole interaction is mainly responsible for the energy transfer from Eu2+(I) to Eu2+(II), and the energy migration between Eu2+(I) is weak. Finally, the X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) spectrum indicates that the light yield of the sample RbBa0.995Eu0.005PO4 is ∼17700 ph/MeV, showing its potential application in X-ray detecting.

In this work, the crystal structure and electronic structure as well as the synchrotron radiation vacuum ultraviolet-ultraviolet-visible (VUV-UV-vis) luminescence properties of Li ₆ Y(BO ₃ ) ₃ (LYBO):Ce ³⁺ phosphors were investigated in detail. The Rietveld refinement and DFT calculation reveal the P2 ₁ /c monoclinic crystal phase and the direct band gap of the LYBO compound, respectively. Only one kind of Ce ³⁺ 4f-5d transition is resolved in terms of the low temperature VUV-UV excitation, UV-vis emission spectra and luminescence decay curves. Furthermore, by constructing the vacuum referred binding energy (VRBE) scheme and applying the frequency-degenerate vibrational model, the impacts of 5d electron binding energy and electron-phonon coupling on luminescence of Ce ³⁺ in LYBO are analysed. The results show that the Ce ³⁺ emission in LYBO possesses a moderate intrinsic thermal stability. With the increase in concentration, the thermal stability of the emission gets worse due to the possible thermally-activated concentration quenching. In addition, the simulation of Ce ³⁺ emission profile at low temperature reveals that the 4f-5d electronic transitions of Ce ³⁺ ions can be treated to couple with one frequency-degenerate vibrational mode having the effective phonon energy of ∼257 cm ⁻¹ with the corresponding Huang-Rhys parameter of ∼6, which indicates a strong electron-phonon interaction of Ce ³⁺ luminescence in the Li ₆ Y(BO ₃ ) ₃ host. Finally, the X-ray excited luminescence spectrum of the LYBO:5%Ce ³⁺ phosphor is measured to check the potential scintillator applications.

The host structure and the synchrotron radiation VUV-UV luminescence properties of samples BaMg₂Si₂O₇ (BMSO):Ln (Ce³⁺, Eu²⁺) at different doping levels and different temperatures were investigated in detail. Three important aspects are studied to elucidate the luminescence properties of samples: (1) the vacuum referred binding energy (VRBE) scheme is constructed with the electron binding in the BMSO host bands and in the Ce³⁺ and Eu²⁺ impurity levels with the aim to explain the different thermal stabilities of Ce³⁺ and Eu²⁺ emissions; (2) the electron-vibrational interaction analysis on the narrow Eu²⁺ emission indicates a weak electron-phonon interaction in the current case; (3) by using three models (Inokuti-Hirayama, Yokota-Tanimoto, and Burshteǐn models) at different conditions, the energy transfer dynamics between Ce³⁺ and Eu²⁺ was analyzed. It reveals that the energy transfer from Ce³⁺ to Eu²⁺ via electric dipole-dipole (EDD) interaction is dominant while energy migration between Ce³⁺ is negligible. Finally, the X-ray excited luminescence spectra of samples BMSO:Ce³⁺/Eu²⁺ are collected to evaluate their possible scintillator applications.