Dongsheng Jiang

Luminescent properties of Eu3+-doped α-NaYF4 single crystal under NUV-excitation

Abstract This paper reports on successful synthesis of α-NaYF4 single crystal doped with Eu3+ at various concentrations by a modified Bridgman method. The crystal structure is characterized by means of X-ray diffraction. The absorption spectra, excitation spectra and emission spectra were measured to investigate the optical properties of the single crystals. An intense red emission located at 611 nm with long lifetime of 9.03 ms was observed in single crystal under the excitation of 394 nm light. It benefits from the low maximum phonon energy of α-NaYF4 single crystal matrix (390 cm−1). The CIE chromaticity coordinate of the α-NaYF4 single crystal doped Eu3+ in 4 mol% concentration was calculated (x = 0.6055, y = 0.388), which was close to the National Television Standard Committee standard values for red phosphor (x = 0.67, y = 0.33). All these spectral properties suggest that that this kind of fluoride crystal with high thermal stability and high efficiency of red emission may be used as potential red phosphors for optical devices.