A Color-tunable Nitride Phosphor for Near-Ultraviolet Excitation of White Light-emitting Diodes

Due to the diversity of structure and composition and the unique coordination environment, nitride materials enable the doped activator ions to possess compelling luminescence characteristics, such as rich emission colors, favorable stability and tunable emission spectra. Here, novel SrLuSi₄ N₇ :Ce³⁺ ,Tb³⁺ nitride phosphors were successfully synthesized by a modified carbothermal reduction and nitridation method at atmospheric pressure. SrLuSi₄ N₇ (SLSN) belongs to hexagonal symmetry, with space group P6₃ mc, and its crystal structure is composed of the basic building block with corner-sharing [SiN₄ ] tetrahedron. Under 365 nm excitation, SLSN:Ce³⁺ exhibits a broad emission band peaking at 450 nm with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 92 nm and the most forceful intensity obtained at the Ce³⁺ concentration amount of 0.04. On the basis of the efficient energy transfer, SLSN:Ce³⁺ ,Tb³⁺ exhibits color-tunable emission from blue (450 nm) to green (545 nm). Our results indicate that SLSN nitride phosphor is a promising candidate for near-ultraviolet (n-UV) based white LEDs.