Defect and crystal field engineering enables high efficiency and anti-thermal quenching in Cr3+ doped rigid garnet phosphors for multifunctional optoelectronics
摘要
The high quantum efficiency (QE) and thermal robustness of near-infrared (NIR) phosphors are critical for phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes (pc-LEDs). Isovalent or aliovalent substitution enables spectral tailoring and performance enhancement in phosphors through controlled coordination and defect engineering. Garnet-type compounds offer tunable crystalline frameworks as advanced phosphor hosts. Herein, a Cr3+ activated Lu2BaAl4SiO12 (LBASO) garnet phosphor is engineered through a chemical unit cosubstitution in which [Ba2+-Si4+] replaces [Lu3+-Al3+] in Lu3Al5O12 (LuAG), resulting in strong crystal field NIR emission characteristics (λem = 705 nm). The optimized LBASO:0.07Cr3+ demonstrated high internal/external quantum efficiencies (IQE/EQE) of 84.82%/46.02%. Notably, this phosphor exhibits anti-thermal quenching (ATQ) resistance (126.03%@498 K) under 442 nm excitation, primarily attributed to its wide band gap, weak electron-phonon coupling (EPC) effect, defect trap energy levels, high structural rigidity of the matrix, and optimized electron population distribution. Furthermore, the NIR pc-LEDs fabricated with this phosphor achieve excellent NIR output power/photoelectric conversion efficiency of 134.99 mW/11.4% under a current drive of 100 mA. This technology has broad application prospects in plant lighting, night vision, and nondestructive analysis.