On the synthesis and down-conversion luminescence of the LaNbO₄:Pr³⁺ phosphor

Abstract

The solid-state reaction method was used for obtaining LaNbO₄ (LNO) samples doped with Pr³⁺ (1 mol%). Results of XRD and Rietveld refinement confirms that the LNO phase remains in the doped sample without the formation of secondary phases. Down-conversion studies were performed under 470 nm excitation and bands in the red region were observed. The intensity of the most intense band (650 nm) is increased by approximately 65% with the dopant addition. Even under very low excitation power the doped sample demonstrates a well-defined luminescence profile, indicating that the LNO:Pr1% sample can be a promising red-emitting phosphor candidate.

KEYWORDS:

• Doping
• phosphor
• LaNbO4
• down-conversion

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly sponsored by the Brazilian Research Agencies CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) (grant INCT NANO(BIO)SIMES), CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino Superior (grant Project PNPD), FINEP - Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (grants INFRAPESQ-11 and INFRAPESQ-12) and the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) (FA9550-11-1-0095).