Luminescence study of Sm3+,Eu3+-doped Y2Zr2O7 host: optical investigation of greenish yellow to red colour tunable pyrochlore phosphor

Pyrochlore phosphors have shown their worth in modern day lighting in the last few years. Colour tunability of the phosphor is one of the modern techniques used to obtain white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs). In the proposed work, Y2Zr2O7:Sm3+,Eu3+ phosphors were investigated for WLED applications as well as display devices. A convectional solid-state diffusion method was used to synthesize the proposed phosphors. X-ray diffraction of the proposed phosphors was performed and compared with the standard Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. The crystal structure of the sample was cubic in nature, obtained from Rietveld refinement. Vibrational and morphological studies on the samples were carried out using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The photoluminescence study of the colour tunable phosphor showed the characteristic peak of Sm3+ together with the two sharp peaks of Eu3+ ions. Greenish yellow to red colour tunability was observed in the proposed phosphor with enhancement of Eu3+ ions. All these results showed the worth of this sample for WLEDs applications as well as in display devices.