Novel trichromatic phosphor Co-doped with Eu, Tb in SiO2 gel matrix

The Eu, Tb co-doped SiO2 matrix tricolor fluorescence system was prepared by sol-gel technique. Red emission at 618 nm, green emission at 543 nm and blue emission at 350–500 nm were observed in the PL spectra of the sample, indicating that Eu3+, Eu2+ and Tb3+ ions coexisted in the matrix. In the co-doped sample, the blue emission of Eu2+ was much stronger than that of the sample single doped with Eu, which implied that the electron transfer between Eu3+ and Tb3+ maybe happened in the SiO2 matrix. The influences of the annealing temperature and Tb concentration on the PL spectra of the samples were investigated. The optimal doped concentration of Tb was determined to be 0.2% and the optimal annealing temperature 850°C. Annealed at 600°C, Tb3+ had a sensitizing effect on Eu3+ in the SiO2 matrix, and the emission intensity of Eu3+ in the Eu, Tb co-doped sample was more than four times that of the single doped sample, which could be attributed to the energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of Director (Grant No. 10247007), Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 2003F22), and the Science Technology Department of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 2004k05-G26)