Intense deep-red emissions of Sm2+ doped SrB6O10 phosphor for plant growth lighting

LED for plant growth lighting is an effective strategy that can regulate plant growth rhythms and increase yields. Red light is one of the essential spectral components for efficiently driving photosynthesis and regulating plant growth. However, most red phosphors currently used for plant growth lighting suffer from issues such as poor matching between their emission spectra and plant absorption range, poor thermal stability. A series of SrB 6 O 10 : Sm 2+ phosphors were prepared under a reducing atmosphere by high-temperature solid-state reaction method. Systematic investigations were conducted on key characteristics of the phosphors, including crystal structure, luminescence properties, and fluorescence decay curves. Under 365 nm light excitation, SrB 6 O 10 : Sm 2+ phosphor exhibits intense deep-red emission in the 650-850 nm range, with an emission maximum at 685 nm that is ascribed to the 5 D 0 → 7 F 0 transition of Sm 2+ . Additionally, the phosphor shows excellent thermal stability, maintaining 80% of its luminescence intensity at 423 K compared to that at 303 K. Finally, a deep-red LED device was fabricated by coating SrB 6 O 10 : 0.02Sm 2+ phosphor onto a 365 nm LED chip. The photoluminescence spectra of this device exhibit excellent matching with the absorption spectra of phytochrome (P R /P FR ). The results indicate that SrB 6 O 10 : Sm 2+ is a promising deep-red phosphor with significant application potential in plant growth lighting.