Violet light excitable BaLiZn3(PO4)3: Eu orange-red-emitting phosphor towards white LED application

White light-emitting diode (WLED) has been widely used as solid-state lighting in recent years, with the advantages of energy saving, high luminous efficiency , and safety. Red phosphors are crucial to the color rendering index of WLED, and Eu 3+ -activated red phosphors can significantly improve the chromaticity performance of WLED. In this work, a series of new orange-red emitting BaLiZn 3 (PO 4 ) 3 : Eu 3+ phosphors were synthesized through high-temperature solid-state reaction method. The phase composition , crystal structure, morphology and photoluminescence properties of BaLiZn 3 (PO 4 ) 3 : Eu 3+ samples were investigated. The phosphors can be effectively excited by the violet light at 394 nm and emit orange-red lights corresponding to the electric dipole transition (5D 0 →7F 1 ) at 594 nm. The optimal doping concentration of Eu 3+ ions was about 5 mol%. The concentration quenching was caused by the electric dipole-dipole interaction between Eu 3+ ions. Temperature-dependent PL spectra indicate that BaLiZn 3 (PO 4 ) 3 : Eu 3+ has excellent emission and color stability at high temperatures. The color coordinates were calculated and fall in the orange-red luminescent area. The color purity is about 98.3 %, and the correlated color temperature is 1710K. These results indicate that the new orange-red phosphor BaLiZn 3 (PO 4 ) 3 : Eu 3+ has potential application prospects in WLED.