Obtain full visible spectrum light-emitting diode illumination via bismuth-activated cyan phosphors

Developing highly efficient cyan-emitting fluorescent materials is essential to bridge the cyan gap in phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes for full-spectrum white illumination. Here, a Bi-doped cyan phosphor has been reported to solve this gap. The phase purity, photoluminescence emission/excitation spectra, concentration quenching, lifetime decay curves, and temperature-dependent photoluminescence emission spectra were systematically investigated. SrLaGaO4:Bi3+ exhibits a broad excitation band (250–400 nm), which matches with the emission of a commercial near-ultraviolet light-emitting diode chip. The cyan light peaked at 475 nm is observed, which is attributed to the 3P1→1S0 transition of Bi3+. The thermal quenching experiment was performed, and the activation energy was calculated as 0.36 eV. Finally, full-spectrum white light-emitting diode devices were fabricated using SrLaGaO4:Bi3+ phosphors, commercial blue BaMgAl10O17:Eu2+ phosphor, green (Ba, Sr)2SiO4:Eu2+ phosphor, and red CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ phosphor, which displayed an International Commission on an illumination coordinate of (0.3732, 0.3850), a correlated color temperature of 4290 K, and a color rendering index of 93.2 at a drive current of 20 mA. This result indicates that SrLaGaO4:Bi3+ plays an essential role in bridging the cyan gap, providing new inspiration for applying cyan-emitting phosphors in full-spectrum white lighting.