Tuning the Photoluminescence Spectral Properties of Ce and Sm Co-Doped YAG Ceramic for Optical Applications

This work reports on the luminescence properties of cerium and samarium co-doped in yttrium–aluminum–garnet ceramic. Single and co-doped YAG nanocrystals have been prepared at different contents of Ce ions. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms the formation of the crystallites and the phase purity. The ceramic has been fabricated by sintering using spark plasma sintering technique. It is found that the photoluminescence (PL) spectral features of ceramic sample are strongly dependent on the excitation wavelength. Broad emission band from Ce3+, is superimposed with the emission lines from Sm3+, thanks to significant spectral overlapping of their excitation lines. Consequently, the emitted color parameters can be widely controlled, as demonstrated from the chromaticity diagram. In addition, cathodoluminescence (CL) has been performed and evidenced the superimposed CL signal from both ions. Moreover, the time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) result indicates the influence of such spectral overlapping on the luminescence decay kinetics.