On the luminescence properties of Eu2+ with multiple-site occupancy in silicate K2MgSi3O8

Charge compensating defects, resulting from heterovalent cation substitution, often play an important role in luminescent properties. In this paper, the luminescence properties of K2MgSi3O8:Eu2+ phosphor were studied by means of XRD, PL and decay analysis. It is found that there was only one K+ site to be substituted by Eu2+ in the K2MgSi3O8 host lattice. However, the existence of multiple Eu2+ sites is observed, which is explained by charge compensating mechanism. Unequal substitution is a meaningful way to discover new luminescent materials.