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Abstract Computers, televisions, and smartphones are revolutionized by the invention of InGaN blue light‐emitting diode (LED) backlighting. Yet, continual exposure to the intense blue LED emission from these modern displays can cause insomnia and mood disorders. Developing “human‐centric” backlighting that uses a violet‐emitting LED chip and a trichromatic phosphor mixture to generate color images is one approach that addresses this problem. The challenge is finding a blue‐emitting phosphor that possesses a sufficiently small Stokes’ shift to efficiently down‐convert violet LED light and produce a narrow blue emission. This work reports a new oxynitride phosphor that meets this demand. K3AlP3O9N:Eu2+ exhibits an unexpectedly narrow (45 nm, 2206 cm−1), thermally robust, and efficient blue photoluminescence upon violet excitation. Computational modeling and temperature‐dependent optical property measurements reveal that the narrow emission arises from a rare combination of preferential excitation and site‐selective quenching. The resulting chromaticity coordinates of K3AlP3O9N:Eu2+ lie closer to the vertex of the Rec. 2020 than a blue LED chip and provides access to ≈10% more colors than a commercial tablet when combined with commercial red‐ and green‐emitting phosphors. Alongside the wide gamut, tuning the emission from the violet LED and phosphor blend can reduce blue light emissions to produce next‐generation, human‐centric displays.
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This content will become publicly available on March 21, 2026
A comparative study of europium doped phosphor materials for white light generation
Nowadays there is a great demand for LED bulbs which are replacing incandescent light bulbs. LED bulbs are compact, rugged, and free from pollution. Diodes emit a single wavelength. However, phosphor coated diodes generate white light on exposure to blue or violet light. Global research is ongoing to design phosphor coatings which emit high intensity in a broad spectral wavelength region. We are also investigating different phosphor materials to address this issue. We are investigating the suitability of europium doped crystals and glasses for this purpose. Crystals used for this study were procured from commercial sources and the glasses were made in our laboratory by the melt quenching technique. The glass samples were then polished with sandpapers of different grades. Detailed spectroscopy measurements were performed to characterize the materials. Absorption spectral measurements of the materials were performed using a Cary 3E spectrophotometer. Emission was stimulated from the samples by exposing them to blue or violet diode lasers. A compact spectrometer was used for fluorescence spectral measurements. Emission spectral data and lifetime measurements were used for unambiguous spectroscopic assignments. From the emission spectral measurements, color coordinates and color temperature were derived.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2331969
- PAR ID:
- 10591444
- Editor(s):
- Digonnet, Michel J; Jiang, Shibin
- Publisher / Repository:
- SPIE
- Date Published:
- Volume:
- 13362
- ISSN:
- 0277-786X
- ISBN:
- 9781510684720
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1336213-6
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Rare-earth spectra, Europium ion, Phosphor coatings, White light generation, color coordinates, color rendering index
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- San Francisco, United States
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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