Comparative study on the luminescent properties of Y3Al5O12:RE3+ (RE:Eu, Dy) phosphors synthesized by three methods

By using metal nitrates and oxides as the starting materials, Y3Al5O12 (YAG) and YAG: RE3+ (RE: Eu, Dy) powder phosphors were prepared by solid state (SS), coprecipitation (CP) and citrate-gel (CG) methods, respectively. The resulting YAG based phosphors were characterized by XRD and photoluminescent excitation and emission spectra as well as lifetimes. The purified crystalline phases of YAG were obtained at 800degreesC (CG) and 900degreesC (CP and SS), respectively. Great differences were observed for the excitation and emission spectra of Eu3+ and Dy3+ between crystalline and amorphous states of YAG, and their emission intensities increased with increasing the annealing temperature. At an identical annealing temperature and doping concentration, the Eu3+ and Dy3+ showed the strongest and weakest emission intensity in CP- and CG-derived YAG phosphors, respectively. The poor emission intensity for CG-derived phosphors is mainly caused by the contamination organic impurities from citric acid in the starting materials. Furthermore, the lifetimes for the samples derived from CG and CP routes are shorter than those derived from the SS route. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.