Improved luminescence of CaAl12-xGaxO19:Cr3+ near-infrared phosphor based on Sr2+ and Ga3+ substitution

Cr 3+ -doped near-infrared phosphors have recently attracted a wide attention. Here, NIR Ca 1- y Sr y Al 12- x Ga x O 19 :0.12Cr 3+ phosphors are obtained by a high-temperature solid-phase method. First, a series of CaAl 7.88 Ga 4 O 19 :0.12Cr 3+ samples is studied and shows that the crystal field strength can be tuned by cation substitutions, until achieving a sharp emission at 692 nm and a broad emission at 780 nm under a 400 nm excitation, and an internal quantum yield of 90.73%. A further substitution by an appropriate amount of Sr 2+ is suggested to be beneficial to increase the rigidity of the crystal structure by Debye temperature calculations. Experimentally, it is observed that Sr 2+ for Ca 2+ substitutions did not affect the luminescence wavelength and resulted in a significant increase of the thermal stability. When 0.7 Sr 2+ substitute Ca 2+ , the thermal stability at 450 K increased by 28% compared to the samples without Sr 2+ .