Luminescence of Ce3+ in lanthanum silicon oxynitride

The luminescence properties of lanthanum silicon oxynitride(La-Si-O-N) series doped by trivalent Ce ions have been investigated to seek for tunable wavelength-conversion phosphor for white light emitting diode applications.Four compound hosts of LaSiO2N,La4Si2O7N2,La5Si3O12 N,and La2Si6O3N8 were synthesized and examined in this work.Crystallographic examination for the equal amount of Ce 3+ substitution indicated that the covalency degree decreased in a sequence LaSiO2 N > La2Si6O3N8 > La4Si2O7N2 > La5Si3O12 N,not simply in correlation to the ratio of N3/O2.Excitation and emission spectrum measurements showed the main features of Ce3+ luminescence in the series:the centre of gravity of 5d bands depends on crystal-field splitting more strongly than that on covalency of Ce-N bonding;nephelauxetic effect could not be observed clearly for the investigated series;to some extent Stokes shift was dominated by crystal-field splitting rather than Ce-N covalency degree.