Rare-earth free yellow-green emitting NaZnPO4:Mn phosphor for lighting applications

Manganese-doped sodium zinc phosphate (NaZnPO4:Mn) phosphor with exceptional features having ultra-violet (UV) to visible absorption (300-470 nm), yellow-green (similar to 543 nm) broad-band photoluminescence (PL), and appreciable color co-ordinates (x = 0.39, y = 0.58) is reported. It has a crystal structure consisting of discrete PO4 tetrahedra linked by ZnO4 and NaO4 distorted tetrahedral such that three tetrahedra, one of each kind, share one corner. The presence of UV sensitive Zn-O-Zn bonds and their efficient energy transfer to Mn2+ ions resulted in brightest PL and external quantum yield of 63% at 418 nm. Our experiment demonstrated the possibility of producing inexpensive white-light emitting devices for future. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4768214]