Luminescence properties and energy transfer investigations of Zn2P2O7: Ce3+, Tb3+ phosphor

Abstract A novel green light emitting phosphor Zn 2 P 2 O 7 : Ce 3+ , Tb 3+ was synthesized by the traditional solid state reaction method at 850 °C. The crystal structure, photoluminescence properties, thermal stability and luminous efficiency were investigated. Co-doping of Ce 3+ enhanced the emission intensity of Tb 3+ greatly by transferring its energy to Tb 3+ . Through an efficient energy transfer process, the obtained phosphors exhibit both the weak emission of Ce 3+ (5d–4f) and the strong emission of Tb 3+ ( 5 D 4 – 7 F J ) with considerable intensity. The energy transfer mechanism from Ce 3+ to Tb 3+ ion was determined to be dipole–dipole interaction, and the energy transfer efficiency was over 90%. The effect of Ce 3+ and Tb 3+ concentrations on luminescence in single and co-doped phosphors was also studied. The novel phosphors have excellent thermal stability and remarkable CIE chromaticity coordinates of (0.3149, 0.5652), which points to its high potential as green emitting phosphor in lighting field.