Tb3+-doped CaNb2O6 (CaNb2O6:Tb3+) thin films were deposited on quartz substrates at a growth temperature of 300 °C using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The deposited thin films were annealed at several annealing temperatures for 20 min and characterized for their structural, morphological, and luminescent properties. The experimental results showed that the annealing temperature had a significant effect on the properties of the CaNb2O6:Tb3+ thin films. The crystalline structure of the as-grown CaNb2O6:Tb3+ thin films transformed from amorphous to crystalline after annealing at temperatures greater than or equal to 700 °C. The emission spectra of the thin films under excitation at 251 nm exhibited a dominant emission band at 546 nm arising from the 5D4 → 7F5 magnetic dipole transition of Tb3+ and three weak emission bands at 489, 586, and 620 nm, respectively. The intensity of the 5D4 → 7F5 (546 nm) magnetic dipole transition was greater than that of the 5D4 → 7F6 (489 nm) electrical dipole transition, indicating that the Tb3+ ions in the host crystal were located at sites with inversion symmetry. The average transmittance at wavelengths of 370~1,100 nm decreased from 86.8 % at 700 °C to 80.5 % at an annealing temperature of 1,000 °C, and a red shift was observed in the bandgap energy with increasing annealing temperature. These results suggest that the annealing temperature plays a crucial role in developing green light-emitting CaNb2O6:Tb3+ thin films for application in electroluminescent displays.

SrMoO4:RE3+ (RE=Dy, Sm, Tb, Eu, Dy/Sm) phosphors are prepared by co-precipitation method. The effects of the type and the molar ratio of activator ions on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of the phosphor particles are investigated. X-ray diffraction data reveal that all the phosphors have a tetragonal system with a main (112) diffraction peak. The emission spectra of the SrMoO4 phosphors doped with several activator ions indicate different multicolor emissions: strong yellow-emitting light at 573 nm for Dy3+, red light at 643 nm for Sm3+, green light at 545 nm for Tb3+, and reddish orange light at 614 nm for Eu3+ activator ions. The Dy3+ singly-doped SrMoO4 phosphor shows two dominant emission peaks at 479 and 573 nm corresponding to the 4F9/2→6H15/2 magnetic dipole transition and 4F9/2→6H13/2 electric dipole transition, respectively. For Dy3+ and Sm3+ doubly-doped SrMoO4 phosphors, two kinds of emission peaks are observed. The two emission peaks at 479 and 573 nm are attributed to 4F9/2→6H15/2 and 4F9/2→6H13/2 transitions of Dy3+ and two emission bands centered at 599 and 643 nm are ascribed to 4G5/2→6H7/2 and 4G5/2→6H9/2 transitions of Sm3+. As the concentration of Sm3+ increases from 1 to 5 mol%, the intensities of the emission bands of Dy3+ gradually decrease; those of Sm3+ slowly increase and reach maxima at 5 mol% of Sm3+ ions, and then rapidly decrease with increasing molar ratio of Sm3+ ions due to the concentration quenching effect. Fluorescent security inks based on as-prepared phosphors are synthesized and designed to demonstrate an anticounterfeiting application.

BaSiO3:RE3+ (RE = Sm or Eu) phosphor powders with different concentrations of activator ions are synthesized using the solid-state reaction method. The effects of the concentration of activator ions on the structural, photoluminescent, and morphological properties of the barium silicate phosphors are investigated. X-ray diffraction data reveals that the crystal structure of all the phosphors, regardless of the type and the concentration of the activator ions, is an orthorhombic system with a main (111) diffraction peak. The grain particles agglomerate together to form larger clusters with increasing concentrations of activator ions. The emission spectra of the Sm3+-doped BaSiO3 phosphors under excitation at 406 nm consist of an intense orange band at 604 nm and three weak bands centered at 567, 651, and 711 nm, respectively. As the concentration of Sm3+ increases from 1 to 5 mol%, the intensities of all the emission bands gradually increase, reach maxima at 5 mol% of Sm3+ ions, and then decrease significantly with further increases in the Sm3+ concentration due to the concentration quenching phenomenon. For the Eu3+-doped BaSiO3 phosphors, a strong red emission band at 621 nm and several weak bands are observed. The optimal orange and red light emissions of the BaSiO3 phosphors are obtained when the concentrations of Sm3+ and Eu3+ ions are 5 mol% and 15 mol%, respectively.

A series of CaNb2O6:Dy3+, CaNb2O6:Eu3+ and CaNb2O6:Dy3+, Eu3+ phosphors were prepared by solid-state reaction process. The effects of activator ions on the structural, morphological and optical properties of the phosphor particles were investigated. XRD patterns showed that all the phosphors had an orthorhombic system with a main (131) diffraction peak. For the Dy3+-doped CaNb2O6 phosphor powders, the excitation spectra consisted of one broad band centered at 267 nm in the range of 210-310 nm and three weak peaks; the main emission band showed an intense yellow band at 575 nm that corresponded to the 4F9/2→ 6H13/2 transition of Dy3+ ions. For the Eu3+-doped CaNb2O6 phosphor, the emission spectra under ultraviolet excitation at 263 nm exhibited one strong reddish-orange band centered at 612 nm and four weak bands at 536, 593, 650, and 705 nm. For the Dy3+ and Eu3+-codoped CaNb2O6 phosphor powders, blue and yellow emission bands due to the 4F9/2→ 6H15/2 and 4F9/2→ 6H13/2 transitions of Dy3+ ions and a main reddish-orange emission line at 612 nm resulting from the 5D0→ 7F2 transition of Eu3+ ions were observed. As the concentration of Eu3+ ions increased from 1 mol% to 10 mol%, the intensities of the emissions due to Dy3+ ions rapidly decreased, while those of the emission bands originating from the Eu3+ ions gradually increased, reached maxima at 10 mol%, and then slightly decreased at 15 mol% of Eu3+. These results indicate that white light emission can be achieved by modulating the concentrations of the Eu3+ ions incorporated into the Dy3+-doped CaNb2O6 host lattice.

Dy3+ and Eu3+-codoped SrWO4 phosphor thin films were deposited on sapphire substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering by changing the growth and thermal annealing temperatures. The results show that the structural and optical properties of the phosphor thin films depended on the growth and thermal annealing temperatures. All the phosphor thin films, irrespective of the growth or the thermal annealing temperatures, exhibited tetragonal structures with a dominant (112) diffraction peak. The thin films deposited at a growth temperature of 100 oC and a thermal annealing temperature of 650 oC showed average transmittances of 87.5% and 88.4% in the wavelength range of 500-1100 nm and band gap energy values of 4.00 and 4.20 eV, respectively. The excitation spectra of the phosphor thin films showed a broad charge transfer band that peaked at 234 nm, which is in the range of 200-270 nm. The emission spectra under ultraviolet excitation at 234 nm showed an intense emission peak at 572 nm and several weaker bands at 479, 612, 660, and 758 nm. These results suggest that the SrWO4: Dy3+, Eu3+ thin films can be used as white light emitting materials suitable for applications in display and solid-state lighting.

CaAl2O4:RE3+(RE = Tb or Dy) phosphor powders were synthesized with different contents of activator ions Tb3+ and Dy3+ by using the solid-state reaction method. The effects of the content of activator ions on the crystal structure, morphology, and emission and excitation properties of the resulting phosphor particles were investigated. XRD patterns showed that all the synthesized phosphors had a monoclinic system with a main (220) diffraction peak, irrespective of the content and type of Tb3+ and Dy3+ ions. For the Tb3+-doped CaAl2O4 phosphor powders, the excitation spectra consisted of one broad band centered at 271 nm in the range of 220-320 nm and several weak peaks; the main emission band showed a strong green band at 552 nm that originated from the 5D4→ 7F5 transition of Tb3+ ions. For the Dy3+-doped CaAl2O4 phosphor, the emission spectra under ultraviolet excitation at 298 nm exhibited one strong yellow band centered at 581 nm and two weak bands at 488 and 672 nm. Concentration-dependent quenching was observed at 0.05 mol of Tb3+ and Dy3+ contents in the CaAl2O4 host lattice.

BaMoO4:Tb3+ phosphor powders were synthesized with different concentrations of Tb3+ ions using the solid-state reaction method. XRD patterns showed that all the phosphors, irrespective of the concentration of Tb3+ ions, had tetragonal systems with two main (112) and (004) diffraction peaks. The excitation spectra of the Tb3+-doped BaMoO4 phosphors consisted of an intense broad band centered at 290 nm in the range of 230-330 nm and two weak bands. The former broad band corresponded to the 4f8 →4f75d1 transition of Tb3+ ions; the latter two weak bands were ascribed to the 7F2→ 5D3 (471 nm) and 7F6→ 5D4 (492 nm) transitions of Tb3+. The main emission band, when excited at 290 nm, showed a strong green band at 550 nm arising from the 5D4→ 7F5 transition of Tb3+ ions. As the concentration of Tb3+ increased from 1 to 10 mol%, the intensities of all the emission lines gradually increased, approached maxima at 10 mol% of Tb3+ ions, and then showed a decreasing tendency with further increase in the Tb3+ ions due to the concentration quenching effect. The critical distance between neighboring Tb3+ ions for concentration quenching was calculated and found to be 12.3 Å, which indicates that dipoledipole interaction was the main mechanism for the concentration quenching of the 5D4→ 7F5 transition of Tb3+ in the BaMoO4:Tb3+ phosphors.

SrSnO3 phosphor powders were synthesized with two different contents of activator ions Eu3+ and Tb3+ using thesolid-state reaction method. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the phosphors were investigated using X-ray diffractometry, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and fluorescence spectrophotometry, respectively. All thephosphors showed a cubic structure, irrespective of the type and the content ratio of activator ions. For Eu3+-doped SrSnO3phosphors, the intensity of the 620nm red emission spectrum resulting from the 5D0→7F2 transition of Eu3+ was stronger thanthat of the 595nm orange emission signal due to the 5D0→7F1 transition in the range 0.01-0.05mol of Eu3+, but the ratio ofthe intensity was reversed in the range 0.10-0.20mol of Eu3+. The variation in the emission intensity indicates that the sitesymmetry of the Eu3+ ions around the host crystal was changed from non-inversion symmetry to inversion. For the Tb3+-dopedSrSnO3 phosphors under excitation at 281nm, one strong green emission band at 550nm and several weak bands wereobserved. These results suggest that the optimum red and green emission signals can be realized when the activator ion contentfor Eu3+- or Tb3+-doped SrSnO3 phosphors is 0.20mol and 0.15mol, respectively.

Red phosphors Ca1-1.5xWO4:Eux3+ were synthesized with different concentrations of Eu3+ ions by using a solid-statereaction method. The crystal structure of the red phosphors was found to be a tetragonal system. X-ray diffraction (XRD) resultsshowed the (112) main diffraction peak centered at 2θ=28.71o, and the size of crystalline particles exhibited an overalldecreasing tendency according to the concentration of Eu3+ ions. The excitation spectra of all the phosphors were composedof a broad band centered at 275nm in the range of 230-310nm due to O2−→W6+ and a narrow band having a peak at 307nmcaused by O2−→Eu3+. Also, the excitation spectrum presents several strong lines in the range of 305-420nm, which areassigned to the 4f-4f transitions of the Eu3+ ion. In the case of the emission spectrum, all the phosphor powders, irrespectiveof Eu3+ ion concentration, indicated an orange emission peak at 594nm and a strong red emission spectrum centered at 615nm,with two weak lines at 648 and 700nm. The highest red emission intensity occurred at x=0.10mol of Eu3+ ion concentrationwith an asymmetry ratio of 12.5. Especially, the presence of Eu3+ in the Ca1-1.5xWO4:Eux3+ shows very effective use of excitationenergy in the range of 305-420nm, and finally yields a strong emission of red light.

Red phosphors of Gd1-xAl3(BO3)4:Eux3+ were synthesized by using the solid-state reaction method. The phasestructure and morphology of the phosphors were measured using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission-scanning electronmicroscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. The optical properties of GdAl3(BO3)4:Eu3+ phosphors with concentrations of Eu3+ ions of0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20mol were investigated at room temperature. The crystals were hexagonal with a rhombohedrallattice. The excitation spectra of all the phosphors, irrespective of the Eu3+ concentrations, were composed of a broad bandcentered at 265nm and a narrow band having peak at 274nm. As for the emission spectra, the peak wavelength was 613nmunder a 274nm ultraviolet excitation. The intensity ratio of the red emission transition (5D0→7F2) to orange (5D0→7F1) showsthat the Eu3+ ions occupy sites of no inversion symmetry in the host. In conclusion, the optimum doping concentration of Eu3+ions for preparing GdAl3(BO3)4:Eu3+ phosphors was found to be 0.15mol.