Synthesis and Spectral Study of Ce3+ Activated Sr3(VO4)2 Nanophosphor

Ce3+ activated Sr3(VO4)2 powders were prepared by combustion method. The structural and optical properties were determined by powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and UV–Vis spectroscopy for diffuse reflectance (DR) studies. XRD was used to identify the phase of the material. Debye Scherrer equation was used to estimate the crystallite size of the material. From DR studies, optical band gap was found to be about 3.93 eV. On excitation with 325 nm near UV, the emission spectrum of the phosphor exhibited a broad band about 478 nm and a number of sharp peaks in the range 550–750 nm. The most prominent peaks about 574 and 618 nm were ascribed to the 5d1 → 2f5/2 and 5d1 → 2f7/2 transitions of Ce3+ ion. These experimental results reveal that the phosphor emits in yellow–red region with chromaticity coordinates as (0.40, 0.34) and thereby implying that it can be well pumped by 325 nm InGaN/GaN UV chips to give out emission near the white illuminant point for display applications.