Luminescence properties and energy transfer investigations of BaAl2B2O7:Ce3+,Tb3+ phosphors

Ce3+ and Tb3+ co-doped BaAl2B2O7 phosphors were synthesized by the solid-state method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize the phase structure. The photoluminescent properties of Ce3+ and Tb3+ co-doped BaAl2B2O7 phosphors were investigated by using the photoluminescence emission and excitation spectra. Under the excitation of near ultraviolet (n-UV) light, BaAl2B2O7:Ce3+,Tb3+ phosphors exhibited blue emission corresponding to the f–d transition of Ce3+ ions and green emission bands corresponding to the f–f transition of Tb3+ ions, respectively. Effective energy transfer occurred from Ce3+ to Tb3+ in BaAl2B2O7 host due to the observed spectra overlap between the emission spectrum of Ce3+ ion and the excitation spectrum of Tb3+ ion. The energy transfer efficiency from Ce3+ ion to Tb3+ ion was also calculated to be 71%. Furthermore, the concentration quenching and critical distance of BaAl2B2O7:Ce3+,Tb3+ phosphors were also discussed. The energy transfer from Ce3+ to Tb3+ in BaAl2B2O7 host was demonstrated to be resonant type via a dipole–dipole interaction mechanism with the energy transfer critical distance of 16.13 Å.