Two-site occupancy induced the broad-band emission in the Ba4−x−ySryLa6O(SiO4)6:xEu2+ phosphor for white LEDs and anti-counterfeiting

With the increasing demand for new inorganic functional materials, more and more attention is paid to rare earth ion doped luminescent materials. In this work, an Eu2+ doped Ba4La6O(SiO4)6 phosphor was synthesized by the high temperature solid-phase method. In the phosphor, two Ba2+ sites could be occupied by Eu2+ cations to provide two different kinds of coordination environments, resulting in broad emitting bands in the range of 450-630 nm and ultra-wide excitation bands in the range of 250-500 nm. The presence of two different Eu2+ emitting centers is verified by measuring the photoluminescence spectra and decay curves in Ba4La6O(SiO4)6 phosphors. The temperature dependence of emission intensity and full width at half maximum of Eu2+ in the range of 293-453 K were investigated systematically. The substitution of Ba2+ by Sr2+ can adjust the crystal field; thus, the luminous intensity was improved by 2.07 times and T50 was increased from 380 K to 453 K. Due to the Sr2+ ion doping, some of the Eu3+ ions cannot be reduced and remain in the trivalent state. In addition, by integrating the as-prepared Ba1.42Sr2.5La6O(SiO4)6:Eu phosphor, commercial blue and red phosphors, and a 385 nm LED chip, a white-LED lamp was made, which realized an applicable color rendering index (Ra = 94.6). For the Ba0.42Sr3.5La6O(SiO4)6 phosphor, the emission can be shifted from yellow to green and to yellow by excitation wavelength variation from 250 to 360 and 480 nm, which proves that the phosphor is a promising candidate for anti-counterfeiting applications.