Energy transfer effect in novel Sm3+-Eu3+ co-activated CaMgAl10O17 phosphors

In this article, the authors prepared CaMgAl 10 O 17 : Sm 3+ , CaMgAl 10 O 17 : Eu 3+ and CaMgAl 10 O 17 : Sm 3+ , Eu 3+ phosphors via high temperature solid-state reaction and studied the phase constituents and photoluminescence (PL) of the phosphors as-synthesized. The main emission peaks of CaMgAl 10 O 17 : Sm 3+ at 559 nm, 590 nm and 639 nm are due to 4 G 5/3  →  6 H 5/2 , 4 G 5/3  →  6 H 7/2 and 4 G 5/3  → 6 H 9/2 transitions of Sm 3+ activator, respectively. The optimum doping concentration of Sm 3+ in CaMgAl 10 O 17 is 3 mol. %. The main emissions of CaMgAl 10 O 17 : Eu 3+ peaked at 586 nm and 610 nm belong to 5 D 0  →  7 F J (J = 1, 2) transitions of Eu 3+ activator. When Eu 3+ ions are added into CaMgAl 10 O 17 : 0.03 Sm 3+ phosphors, an energy transfer between Sm 3+ and Eu 3+ via an electrical multipole interaction occurs, and the emission intensity of CaMgAl 10 O 17 : 0.03 Sm 3+ , Eu 3+ phosphors is greatly improved.