Luminescence of Ce3+ multicenters in Ca2+-Mg2+-Si4+ based garnet phosphors

Comparison of the luminescent properties of Ca3Sc2Si3O12: Ce and Ca2YMgScSi3O12: Ce single crystalline films (SCF) phosphors, grown by the liquid phase epitaxy method, was performed in this work. We have observed formation of the Ce3+ multicenters in Ca3Sc2Si3O12: Ce and Ca2YMgScSi3O12: Ce in the emission and excitation spectra as well as in the decay kinetics of the Ce3+ luminescence in SCFs of these garnets. Such Ce3+ multicenters possess different crystal field strength due to the inhomogeneous local surroundings of the dodecahedral positions of garnet host at the substitution of the octahedral positions by hetero-valence Mg2+ and Sc3+ ions and the tetrahedral positions by Si4+ ions. We confirm the presence of an effective energy transfer between different Ce3+ multicenters in Ce3+ doped Ca3Sc2Si3O12 and Ca2YMgScSi3O12 garnets. The positive trends in variations of the spectroscopic properties of the Ca2YMgScSi3O12: Ce garnet with respect to Ca3Sc2Si3O12: Ce garnet were observed also due to substitution of the dodecahedral sites of the garnet host by Y3+ ions and the octahedral sites by Mg2+ ions, which can be suitable for the development of new converters of white LEDs. Namely, due to the Y3+-Mg2+ doping, the luminescence spectrum of Ce3+ ions in Ca2YMgScSi3O12: Ce SCFs significantly extends in the red range in comparison with the Ca3Sc2Si3O12: Ce SCF counterpart.