Synthesis, characterization and luminescence properties of long afterglow Phosphor Ba4Al14O25:Eu,Dy

Abstract

Long persistent afterglow phosphor, Ba4Al14O25:Eu2+,Dy3+ was prepared at high temperature by a solid state reaction in a weak reductive atmosphere. The crystal structure of Ba4Al14O25:Eu2+,Dy3+ has been determined as an orthorhombic Pmmm space group with a=18.200(6) Å, b=16.923(6) Å, c=5.131(21) Å, V=1580.3(9) Å3 and Z=8. The reflectance measurement was obtained by using the Diffuse Reflectance Spectrophotometer and the band gap energy of the undoped host phase of Ba4Al14O25 was calculated by using Kubelka-Munk treatment on the diffuse reflectance spectra, and found to be 4.72 eV. The excitation and emission peaks are broad bands and the main emission peak at 520 nm with shoulder at 496 nm belongs to the intrinsic defect of the host and 4f65d1→4f7 transition of Eu2+, respectively. The afterglow decay curve implied that this phosphor contains fast and slow-decay processes. The thermoluminescence glow curve showed one dominant glow peak observed at 50 oC and two weak glow peaks at around 140 oC and 220 oC which are related to the defects at different trap depths.