Photoluminescence properties of Ce3+ and Ce3+–Eu2+ energy transfer in Ba1.3Ca0.7SiO4 phosphors

Ce3+ doped and Ce3+–Eu2+ co-doped Ba1.3Ca0.7SiO4 phosphors are synthesized by the conventional solid state reaction method. The Ce3+ activated sample exhibits five excitation bands peaking at 240, 257, 280, 327 and 362 nm, which are attributed to the five energy levels due to 5d splitting, and has two intense blue emission bands peaking at 398 and 431 nm by two sites. It is discussed that Ce3+ substituted coordinated number 10 and 12 of Ca sites in Ba1.3Ca0.7SiO4. It was found that the emission intensity of Ba1.3Ca0.7−xSiO4:xCe3+ phosphors increases clearly with increasing of Ce3+ concentration and reaches a maximum at 1 mol%. The energy transfer between Ce3+ and Eu2+ ions is investigated with increasing Eu2+ ions at fixed Ce3+ concentration, the energy transfer is determined to be due to the dipole–dipole interaction mechanism.