Luminescence properties of nanosized Y³ Al⁵ O¹² CE³⁺ phosphor synthesized by liquid phase precursor method

American Scientific Publishers A novel liquid-phase precursor (LPP) method using precursor nanoparticles (PNs) is proposed to synthesize yttrium aluminum garnet nano-sized phosphor (Y₃Al₅O₁₂:Ce³⁺, nano-YAG:Ce) at 1100-1500 °C for 5 h. The influences of the heat-treatment and morphology properties of the PNs on the luminescence properties of the nano-YAG:Ce phosphor were investigated. Nano- YAG:Ce phosphor with better morphology and high luminescence efficiency was obtained with heat-treatment of PNs at 1200 °C. With more heat treatment, the phosphor particles agglomerated more, and the emission intensity increased. The broad photoluminescence excitation (PLE) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the nano-YAG:Ce phosphor were centered at 341 nm and 466 nm, respectively, due to the 4f → 5d energy transition. The nonsymmetrical emission spectra range of 470-750 nm was centered at 529.2 nm due to the 5d → 4f energy transition of Ce³⁺. The nano-YAG:Ce, and micro-YAG:Ce phosphors synthesized by theLPP method using precursor microparticles (PMs) and PNs were investigated and compared.