Ba₃Lu(BO₃)₃:Ce³⁺,Tb³⁺/Mn²⁺: Dual-Functional Material for WLEDs and Optical Pressure Sensing

Abstract

Ba 3 Lu(BO 3 ) 3 (BLB):Ce 3+ ,Tb 3+ /Mn 2+ phosphors were designed to explore effective and multifunctional applications. Under the excitation of near-ultraviolet (n-UV) light, the BLB:Ce 3+ phosphor showed broad-band blue emission. After codoping with Mn 2+ ions, the single-phase white light phosphor is achieved through the energy transfer (ET) between Ce 3+ and Mn 2+ . In addition, thermal stability is significantly enhanced by the addition of Tb 3+ (BLB:0.02Ce 3+ ,0.20Tb 3+ ) compared to that codoped with Mn 2+ (BLB:0.02Ce 3+ ,0.10Mn 2+ ). The light-emitting diode (LED) device with warm white light emission is fabricated with UV-chip-coated BLB:0.02Ce 3+ ,0.05Tb 3+ and Sr 2 Si 5 N 8 :Eu 2+ phosphors, showing a good potential application value for LEDs. Additionally, the spectral properties of borate-based phosphors (BLB:0.02Ce 3+ ) under high pressure were studied for the first time. Surprisingly, the change of pressure enabled the emission peak of BLB:0.02Ce 3+ to be tuned from 485 to 552 nm, and dλ/dP is 3.51 nm GPa −1 . The color changes from blue to yellow with an increase of pressure. Compared with the reported data, the pressure-sensing sensitivity based on the central peak shift in this work is the highest in all Ce 3+ single-doped samples. In addition, the emitting color and intensity were gradually regained after decompression. The intensity can reach 80% of the initial intensity. All data demonstrate that the BLB:0.02Ce 3+ phosphor has the potential to be utilized as an optical pressure sensor due to the high-pressure sensitivity and visible color tuning.