Synthesis and tunable blue–green color emission and energy transfer of Ce3+, Tb3+ co-doped BaZrSi3O9 phosphors

Utilizing energy transfer process, Ce3+, Tb3+ co-doped BaZrSi3O9 (BZS) phosphors have been successfully prepared via solid state reaction process. The phase structure, photoluminescence properties, decay curves, thermal stability, and the energy transfer mechanism were investigated in this paper. The critical distance calculated by quenching concentration method was 8.84 Å, and the energy transfer process from Ce3+ to Tb3+ in BZS:Ce3+/Tb3+ phosphors had been demonstrated to be a resonant type via a dipole–quadrupole mechanism. The emission colors of the phosphors could be tuned from blue (0.1625, 0.1261) to green (0.2979, 0.5473) through the corresponding Ce3+ to Tb3+ energy transfer. Moreover, thermal quenching luminescence results revealed that BZS:Ce3+, Tb3+ exhibited good thermal stability. The Tb3+ intensity of BZS:0.04Ce3+, 0.02Tb3+ sample showed about 60.88 % of its initial emission intensity at room temperature. The above results indicate that the phosphors may be potentially used as single-component blue–green emission phosphors for application in light emitting device.