Highly efficient near-infrared solid solution phosphors with excellent thermal stability and tunable spectra for pc-LED light sources toward NIR spectroscopy applications

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) luminescent materials have attracted wide research interest due to their unique photophysical properties for designing NIR light-emitting diodes (NIR LEDs). Here, a series of Cr³⁺-activated NIR-emitting solid solution phosphors, Gd_1−xLu_x(Al_1−xSc_x)₃(BO₃)₄:0.01Cr³⁺ (GLASB:Cr³⁺) (x = 0 to 0.5), are successfully synthesized via a cosubstitution approach. The GLASB:Cr³⁺ phosphors reveal extraordinary optical performance with a desirable high IQE of 93.6%, considerable broadened FWHM (from 128 nm to 196 nm) and redshift of 119 nm (747 → 866 nm) as the amount of [Lu³⁺–Sc³⁺] ion doping increases. Moreover, their photoluminescent thermal stability is substantially improved, maintaining 105.7% of the initial integral intensity up to 150 °C, namely zero-thermal-quenching. The NIR pc-LED fabricated using the GLASB:Cr³⁺ phosphor generates an NIR output power of 46 mW and an electro-optical efficiency of 37% at a 120 mA input current. Finally, the characteristic NIR emission of this phosphor can not only be utilized in the fields of night-vision technology and biometric identification, but also exhibits a perfect match with the absorption of the bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) and light-harvesting protein (LHP) of photosynthetic bacteria (PSB), presenting a high application prospect for improving PSB photosynthesis.