Structural and luminescence properties of Y(2-x)GeMoO8:REx (RE = Eu, Tb) phosphors

Y(2-x)GeMoO8:REx (RE = Eu, Tb) phosphors were synthesized using a facile sol-gel method. The morphology and structure of the phosphors were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD); while their luminescent properties were investigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectrometry. Our results reveal that all of these Y(2-x)GeMoO8:REx (RE = Eu, Tb) phosphors adopted the tetragonal phase, belonging to Scheelite (CaWO4 ) structure. The obtained YGeMoO8:Eu phosphors exhibit a strong emission in the red light range which can be assigned to the (5)D0  → (7)F2 transition of Eu(3+) when it is excited at 459 nm. Under 392 and 489 nm excitation, the YGeMoO8:Tb phosphors present predominant green emission ((5)D4  → (7)F5) at 540 nm. The highest emission of the phosphors can be achieved by adjusting the doping concentration to be 0.25 for Eu(3+) and 0.15 for Tb(3+), respectively. The promising luminescence properties of these materials indicate that they can be potentially applied to white-light-emitting diodes.