Fabrication and optical properties of Eu3+-doped Ba(Zr, Mg, Ta)O3 transparent fluorescent ceramics

Highlights: • The Eu³⁺:BZMT transparent ceramics were prepared by solid state reaction under oxygen atmosphere. • The Eu³⁺:BZMT transparent ceramics reach 99.9% of theoretical density and 92.3% of theoretical transmittance. • The Eu³⁺:BZMT transparent ceramics exhibit an excellent red light. • The Eu³⁺:BZMT transparent fluorescent ceramics have excellent thermal stability and color stability. With the development of high-power white light-emitting diodes, transparent ceramics have attracted more and more attention. In this paper, highly transparent Eu-doped Ba(Zr_0.16Mg_0.28Ta_0.56)O₃ (Eu³⁺:BZMT) transparent ceramics with different Eu-doped concentrations were fabricated via a high-temperature solid-state reaction approach. For 1-mm-thickness sample, the in-line transmittance of Eu³⁺:BZMT transparent ceramics is 72.3% at 650 nm, which is almost 92.3% of the theoretical transmittance. The emission spectrum of Eu³⁺:BZMT is discovered at 575–650 nm (⁵D₀→⁷F₁ (575–600 nm) and ⁵D₀→⁷F₂ (600–650 nm)), which displays an orange-red emitting. Through the study of the variable temperature spectrum, an outstanding thermal stability has been observed in Eu³⁺:BZMT. The experiment suggests that Eu³⁺:BZMT can be potentially adopted as a red phosphor for high-power WLEDs.