Structure and fluorescent properties of Ba₃Sc(PO₄)₃:Sm³⁺ red-orange phosphor for n-UV w-LEDs

Highlights: • A new inorganic framework of Ba₃Sc(PO₄)₃:Sm³⁺ phosphors with eulytite structure has been synthesized. • Ba₃Sc(PO₄)₃:Sm³⁺ phosphors can be accurately excited by 406 nm which locates at the near ultraviolet region. • The synthesis technique of Ba₃Sc(PO₄)₃:Sm³⁺ phosphors was simple. An appropriate solid-state route was adopted to synthesize a series of related Ba₃Sc(PO₄)₃:xSm³⁺ red-orange phosphors. The Rietveld method was used to explore the structure of the phosphor. At present the PL, PLE, diffuse reflection and decay curves have been investigated in detail. These phosphors can be accurately excited by the 406 nm n-UV light and produce the emitted red-orange light whose peaks locate at about 566 nm, 603 nm and 650 nm. The quantum efficiency of Ba₃Sc_0.95(PO₄)₃:0.05Sm³⁺ was 53.5%. All above results indicate that Ba₃Sc(PO₄)₃:Sm³⁺ phosphor can act as a suitable candidate of the warm components of n-UV w-LEDs.