A guide to comprehensive phosphor discovery for solid-state lighting

Inorganic phosphors have been crucial in enabling energy-efficient, phosphor-converted light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and display technologies. The push to increase the luminous efficacy and improve the colour quality of these lights has led to a surge in reports of different combinations of phosphor host structures and activators, with many claiming that the new materials have transformative properties. This Perspective article outlines the optical property requirements phosphors must meet to impact the field. Additionally, the tools that have been developed to accelerate the discovery of exceptional phosphors that meet these requirements are summarized, including crystal–chemical design rules, proxies, data-driven approaches, first-principles calculations and combinatorial methods. We also highlight open challenges in the field of phosphor discovery. Finally, we discuss the reality that these methods are unlikely to identify a perfect phosphor that satisfies all the requirements. Instead, we propose a workflow for phosphor discovery that prioritizes the properties necessary to produce next-generation phosphor materials.