White light emission materials based on simultaneous Tb3+, Eu3+ and Dy3+ doping in CaWO4 single-phased

Abstract

Tungstates activated by trivalent rare earth ions (RE3+) can be used for many optical devices [1]. Over the last decades, the solid-state lighting sources based on phosphor converted white lightemitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) has improved to overtake fluorescent lighting types because of many advantages such as high ecofriendliness, brightness, low power consumption and fast response time [2]. Here we report preparation and spectroscopic properties of the single phase new highly luminescent white emitting of the Tb3+/Eu3+/Dy3+ triply-doped CaWO4 material. The CaWO4:xTb3+,xEu3+,xDy3+(x mol% of the Ca2+ amount) materials were prepared by fast coprecipitation method at room temperature with stoichiometry aqueous solutions of Na2WO4, CaCl2 and RECl3 (RE3+: Tb, Eu and Dy). The XPD measurements revealed the CaWO4:RE3+ particles belong to the tetragonal scheelite phase with I41/a (#88) space group. The emission spectra exhibit only narrow emission bands arising from the doping Tb3+, Dy3+ and Eu3+ ions. These emission bands are assigned to the 4f transitions from the 4F9/2 (Dy3+), 5D4 (Tb3+) and 5D0 (Eu3+) emitting states to their energy levels corresponding to (in nm): 702 5D07F4(Eu3+), 655 5D07F3(Eu3+), 615 5D07F2(Eu3+), 592 5D07F1(Eu3+), 575 4F9/26H13/2(Dy3+), 544 5D47F5(Tb3+), 488 5D47F6(Tb3+), 478 4F9/26H15/2(Dy3+) (Fig. left). The presence of the emission bands assigned to the doping Dy3+, Tb3+ and Eu3+ ions suggests clear evidence of nonradiative energy transfer from 4F9/2 (Dy3+)5D4 (Tb3+)5D0 (Eu3+) emitter states (Fig. center). The white light emission was mainly reached for 5.0 mol% RE3+ with x: 0.333; y: 0.352 CIE (Commission Internationale l'Éclairage) coordinates (Fig. right). These phosphors could be suitable as triply-doped white light emitters with only single-phased for solid state lighting applications. Since warm white light is preferred for reading, while cold white light is preferred for public lighting the tunability of this single-phase emitting phosphor exhibit promising applications for solid-state lighting.