Abstract—The metastable garnet lattice of Gd3Al5O12 (GdAG) has been effectively stabilized by doping smaller Lu3+, which then allows an effective incorporation of rare earth ions Eu3+ activators for opto-functionality explorations. Detailed characterizations of the products were achieved by combined means of FT-IR, DTA/TG, XRD, FE-SEM, BET, PL/PLE. The [(Gd0.5Lu0.5)1-xEux]3Al5O12 (LnAG, x=0.01-0.09) garnet solid-solutions with good dispersion and a fairly uniform particle morphology were obtained by calcining their precursors with a general formula of (NH4)xLn3Al5(OH)y(CO3)z·nH2O (Ln=Gd, Lu and Eu), synthesized via carbonate coprecipitation. The LnAG exhibit strong 591 nm emissions (the 5D0→7F1 magnetic dipole transitions of Eu3+) upon UV excitation into the charge transfer band (CTB) at ~238 nm with CIE chromaticity coordinates of x=0.62 and y=0.38 (orange red), and the quenching concentration of Eu3+ was found to be 5at% (x=0.05). Owing to the improved crystallization of LnAG at a higher temperature, luminescence emission intensity increases significantly, especially above 1300 oC. The Eu3+ doped (Gd,Lu)AG phosphors are expected to be a new type of photoluminescent and scintillation material.

Index Terms—gadolinium aluminate garnet, Eu3+ doping, photoluminescence, lattice structure stabilization

Cite: Jinkai Li , Ji-Guang Li, and Yoshio Sakka, "Investigation of New Red Phosphors of Eu3+ Activated (Gd, Lu) 3Al5O12 Garnet," International Journal of Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 15-19, June 2013. doi: 10.12720/ijmse.1.1.15-19