Structure and Photoluminescence Properties of Pr 3+ Ion-Doped BaY 2 ZnO 5 Phosphor Prepared Using a Sol-Gel Method?

Abstract

The Pr3+ ion-doped BaY2ZnO5 phosphor with the orthorhombic structure was synthesized successfully using a sol-gel method in this study. The SEM images show that the BaY2ZnO5:Pr3+ phosphor particles are aggregational but have an isotropic distribution for 2 mol% Pr3+ ions doped. Under an excitation wavelength of 311 nm, the emission bands that appear in the emission spectra are due to the 3P0→3H4,5,6, 1D2→3H4 and 3P0→3F2 electron transition of Pr3+ ion, and it is the same as that for solid state reaction preparation. Comparing to the solid state reaction preparation, the intensities of the 3P0→3H4 transition were increased by about 6.5 times for sol-gel method. The enhancement in emission intensity is because the activators have more homogeneous contribution in host for the sol-gel method preparation. In addition, the color tone did not change very obviously, which located around the green light region for Pr3+ ion concentrations increasing. The color stability is better for sol-gel method than that for the solid state reaction preparation.