Monodisperse micro-spherical Sr_(2-z)Mg_(1+y)Y_(z)Al_(22-x)O_(36):xMn^(4+)red phosphors

With narrow red photoluminescence (PL) bands, tetravalent Mn^(4+) doped phosphors show promising prospect in commercial application to effectively expand color gamut of phosphor converted LED displays. Here, we report a type of Sr_(2-z)Mg_(1+y)Y_(z)Al_(22-x)O_(36):xMn^(4+) phosphors with regular cage-like micro-spherical morphologies. The micron size spherical precursors were synthesized with a propylene oxide (PO) driven fast sol–gel method. The cage -like spherical morphology is beneficial to efficiently trapping much incident light to enhance the PL of the phosphors. Being calcined at 1300 ℃, Sr_(2)MgAl_(21.978)O_(36):0.022Mn^(4+) only exhibits the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 24.91%. With the Mg^(2+)-Mn^(4+) codoping and Y^(3+)/Sr^(2+) substituting strategies, to fulfill charge balance and produce John-Teller distortion, IQE of Sr_(2-z)Mg_(1+y)Y_(z)Al_(22-x)O_(36):xMn^(4+) can be further improved up to 36.45%. The CIE color coordinates of Sr_(2-z)Mg_(1+y)Y_(z)Al_(22-x)O_(36):xMn^(4+) under near ultraviolet excitation can be stably fixed to (0.723, 0.227) at deep red region. It thus finds a potential application as pc-LED display with much broader color gamut than that of the NTSC standard. Therefore, Sr_(2-z)Mg_(1+y)Y_(z)Al_(22-x)O_(36):xMn^(4+) micron size spheres can be employed as promising red phosphors for high performance LED displays.