Yellow/Orange-Emitting ABZn2Ga2O7:Bi3+(A = Ca, Sr; B = Ba, Sr) Phosphors: Optical Temperature Sensing and White Light-Emitting Diode Applications

Recently, there has been growing interest in developing Bi3+-activated luminescence materials for optoelectronic applications. Herein, new yellow/orange-emitting ABZn2Ga2O7:Bi3+ (ABZGO, A = Ca, Sr; B = Ba, Sr) phosphors with tunable optical properties are synthesized by an alkaline earth cation substitution. When Sr2+ substitutes Ca2+ and Ba2+, the excitation wavelength has a red shift from 325 to 363 nm, matching well with the n-UV chip based white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs). CaBaZn2Ga2O7:0.01Bi3+ (CBZGO:0.01Bi3+) exhibits two evident emission peaks at 570 and 393 nm originating from the respective occupation of Ca and Ba sites by Bi3+ ions. The optical tuning of the CBZGO:Bi3+ phosphor is achieved by changing the Bi3+ doping content and excitation wavelength based on the selected site occupation. Differently, both SrBaZn2Ga2O7:0.01Bi3+ (SBZGO:0.01Bi3+) and Sr2Zn2Ga2O7:0.01Bi3+ (SZGO:0.01Bi3+) phosphors exhibit a single broad emission band, peaking at 600 and 577 nm, respectively. Two different Bi3+ sites are also verified respectively in SBZGO and SZGO hosts by the Gaussian fitting of the asymmetric PL spectra and lifetime analysis. The different luminescence behaviors of ABZGO:0.01Bi3+ phosphors should be ascribed to the synergistic effect of the centroid shift, crystal-field splitting, and Stokes shift. Moreover, the temperature-dependent PL spectra reveal that cation substitutions of Sr2+ for Ca2+ and Ba2+ can efficiently improve the thermal stability of ABZGO:0.01Bi3+ phosphors. In view of different thermal responses to various temperatures for two emission peaks of the CBZGO:0.01Bi3+ phosphor, an optical thermometer is designed and has a good relative sensitivity (Sr = 1.453% K–1) at 298 K. Finally, a WLED with CRI = 97.9 and CCT = 3932 K is obtained by combining SZGO:0.01Bi3+ and BAM:Eu2+ phosphors with a 370 nm n-UV chip, demonstrating that SZGO:0.01Bi3+ is an excellent yellow-orange-emitting phosphor for n-UV WLED devices. This work stimulates the exploration of optical tuning by cation substitution to obtain remarkable luminescence materials for optical temperature sensing and WLED applications.