Spectra and long-lasting properties of Sm3+-doped yttrium oxysulfide phosphor

We reported, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the Sm3+-doped yttrium oxysulfide phosphors has reddish orange long-lasting phosphorescence. The phosphor show prominent luminescence in reddish orange due to the electronic transitions of 4G5/2→6HJ (J = 5/2, 7/2, 9/2), the afterglow color of this type of phosphors is a mixture of the three above mentioned electronic transition emissions and have a little different when the concentration of the Sm3+ dopant changes. Synthesis procedure of the Sm3+-yttrium oxysulfide reddish orange phosphor through the flux fusion method with binary flux compositions was presented. The synthesized phosphors were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) to interpret the structural characterization. The XRD analysis result reveal that the Y2O2S:Sm3+ phosphor synthesized with a binary flux composition containing (S and Na2CO3 at a ratio of 1:1 at 30 wt.% of total raw material) at 1050 °C for 3 h was in single-phase. Luminescence properties of the Y2O2S:Sm3+ long-lasting phosphor was analyzed by measuring the excitation spectra, emission spectra and afterglow decay curve. The mechanism of the strong afterglow from Y2O2S:Sm3+ was also discussed in this paper.