Phosphors for Solid-State White Lighting

Since the mid-1990s, phosphors have played a key role in emerging solid-state white-lighting technologies that are based on combining a III-nitride-based near-UV or blue solid-state light source with downconversion to longer wavelengths. Almost all widely used phosphors comprise a crystalline oxide, nitride, or oxynitride host that is appropriately doped with either Ce 3+ or Eu 2+ . These ions, with [Xe] 4f n 5d 0 configurations (n = 1 for Ce 3+ and 7 for Eu 2+ ) have proximal excited states that are [Xe] 4f n−1 5d 1 . Optical excitation into these states and concomitant reemission can be tuned into the appropriate regions of the visible spectrum by the crystal these ions are hosted in. In this article, we…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• DO
  Division of Graduate Education