Violet light excitable BaLiZn3(PO4)3: Eu orange-red-emitting phosphor towards white LED application

White light-emitting diode (WLED) has been widely used as solid-state lighting in recent years, with the advantages of energy saving, high luminous efficiency, and safety. Red phosphors are crucial to the color rendering index of WLED, and Eu3+-activated red phosphors can significantly improve the chromaticity performance of WLED. In this work, a series of new orange-red emitting BaLiZn3(PO4)3: Eu3+ phosphors were synthesized through high-temperature solid-state reaction method. The phase composition, crystal structure, morphology and photoluminescence properties of BaLiZn3(PO4)3: Eu3+ samples were investigated. The phosphors can be effectively excited by the violet light at 394 nm and emit orange-red lights corresponding to the electric dipole transition (5D0 -> 7F1) at 594 nm. The optimal doping concentration of Eu3+ ions was about 5 mol%. The concentration quenching was caused by the electric dipole-dipole interaction between Eu3+ ions. Temperature- dependent PL spectra indicate that BaLiZn3(PO4)3: Eu3+ has excellent emission and color stability at high temperatures. The color coordinates were calculated and fall in the orange-red luminescent area. The color purity is about 98.3 %, and the correlated color temperature is 1710K. These results indicate that the new orange-red phosphor BaLiZn3(PO4)3: Eu3+ has potential application prospects in WLED.