Red-shift of emission wavelength caused by reabsorption mechanism of europium activated Ca-α-SiAlON ceramic phosphors

The optical properties of divalent europium activated Ca-alpha-SiAlON were investigated and the excitation and emission processes were discussed. The emission wavelength is influenced by the activator concentration of Eu more than the codopant concentration of Ca, in case of the same matrix composition of alpha-SiAlON. The red-shift of emission increases when the concentration of Eu increases. In addition, it was revealed that the red-shift of emission would be caused by the construction of the package of optical device. The correlated color temperature becomes low by the red-shift for the white light-emitting diode (LED) lamp using Ca-alpha-SiAlON:Eu phosphor when the phosphor powder concentration increases in the transparent resin which coats the primary light source of a blue LED die. The additional red-shift can be observed when the excessive amount of phosphor coating is intentionally poured to the white LED lamps. These red-shifts of emission wavelength could be explained by the classical configurational coordinate model. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.