Photoluminescence and energy transfer studies in Ce3+ and Sm3+ activated P2O5+K2O+Al2O3+BaF2+NaF2 glasses for solid state lighting

A color of blue-red emission by Ce3+ and Sm3+ activated fluorophosphate glasses (PKABfNf:P2O5+K2O + Al2O3+BaF2+NaF2) were successfully fabricated by using usual melt and sudden quenching method. The FTIR, SEM, EDS, luminescence spectra, the decay rates, and energy transfer (ET) mechanism in the co-doped (Ce3+, Sm3+):PKABfNf glasses were systematically investigated in detail. The luminescence spectra of co-doped glasses show broadband blue de-excitation that belongs to Ce3+ ions and it obviously intensify the red de-excitation of Sm3+ through an effective ET process. The decrease in lifetime could support the existence of ET between Ce3+ and Sm3+ in PKABfNf glasses. This ET from Ce3+ to Sm3+ can be proposed to be the interaction due to quadrupole-quadrupole, based on the Dexter's ET formula and Reisfeld's approximation. Furthermore, CIE chromaticity coordinates, color correlated temperature, color purity, ET luminous efficiency (qE-r), critical energy transfer distance (Re), and ET parameter (Q) were calculated. The findings show that (Ce3++,Sm3+):PICABfNf glass might be a promising candidate in lighting field applications.