Disorder-Order Conversion-Induced Enhancement of Thermal Stability of Pyroxene Near-Infrared Phosphors for...

The minimization of thermal quenching, which leads to luminescence loss at high temperatures, is one of the most important issues for near-infrared phosphors. In the present work, we investigated the properties of near-infrared Ca(Sc,Mg)(Al, Si)O₆  : Cr³⁺ phosphors with a pyroxene-type structure under blue light excitation. The CaScAlSiO₆  : Cr³⁺ end member of Ca(Sc,Mg)(Al,Si)O₆  : Cr³⁺ phosphor led to broadband emission at a full-width half maximum of 215 nm, whereas the CaMgSi₂ O₆  : Cr³⁺ end member exhibited high thermal stability at 150 °C, with an intensity of 88.4 % of that at room temperature. The structural analysis and density functional theory calculations revealed the absence of soft conformations and local space confinement contributed to the high structural rigidity and weakened the thermal quenching effect.