Investigation of some luminescence properties of cerium doped yttrium gadolinium aluminate phosphorus

Yttrium aluminum garnet Y3Al5O12 (YAG) is one of the most important optical materials with a wide range of applications such as a laser host material, optical lens, and thermal barrier coating owing to high thermal stability, chemical stability, a relatively stable lattice and a high temperature mechanical strength. The rare earth doped YAG crystals are the most widely used solid-state laser materials. YAG materials are promising phosphor candidates in cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), field emission displays (FEDs), scintillation, vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) and electroluminescent (EL), due to the discovery of stimulated emission in Neodymium-doped yttrium–aluminum garnet (YAG) crystal. Yttrium aluminum garnet (Y3Al5O12 or YAG) doped with Ce3+ is at present one of most important luminescent materials that is applied in white light LEDs. YAG:Ce was first introduced as phosphor for fast cathode ray tubes. Cerium (Ce) doped yttrium aluminum garnet is a yellow phosphor widely used as scintillator for alpha particles and gamma rays as well as LED. However, gadolinium aluminum garnet (GAG) is not a familiar material as a host contrasted to YAG since it is very difficult to synthesize by conventional method at a temperature above 1600 C. The chemical and physical characteristics of GAG are very similar to YAG. In addition GAG is also a suitable host material for the replacement of rare earth ions. In this study, photoluminescence response (PL), radioluminescence spectrum (RL), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses of yttrium gadolinium aluminate phosphors doped with cerium ((Y1-x, Gdx)3Al5O12:Ce) concentration are reported. A need for information on the results of Gd doping has thus motivated the present work. The aim of this studies is to the synthesize cerium doped yttrium gadolinium aluminum garnets ((Y1-x,Gdx)3Al5O12:Ce) phosphors both for superior photoluminescence performances required in white LED lighting using wet-chemical route via the reagent simultaneous addition technique (WCS-SimAdd).