A new orange-yellow-emitting Sr9Mg(1.5)(PO4)7:Eu(2+) phosphor was prepared via high-temperature solid-state reaction. The structure and optical properties of it were studied systematically. Sr9Mg(1.5)(PO4)7:Eu(2+) can be well-excited by 460 nm blue InGaN chips and exhibit a wide emission band covering from 470 to 850 nm with two main peaks centered at 523 and 620 nm, respectively, which originate from 5d-4f dipole-allowed transitions of Eu(2+) in different crystallographic sites. The sites attribution, concentration quenching, fluorescence decay analysis, and temperature-dependent luminescence properties were investigated in detail. Furthermore, a warm white LED device was fabricated by combining a 460 nm blue InGaN chip with the optimized orange-yellow-emitting Sr9Mg(1.5)(PO4)7:Eu(2+). The color coordinate, correlated color temperature and color rendering index of the fabricated LED device were (0.393, 0.352), 3437 K, and 86.07, respectively. Sr9Mg(1.5)(PO4)7:Eu(2+) has great potential to serve as an attractive candidate in the application of blue light-excited warm white LEDs.
Keywords: Sr9Mg1.5(PO4)7:Eu2+; blue InGaN chips; orange-yellow-emitting phosphor; photoluminescence; warm white LEDs.