Enhanced narrow-band green-emission and thermal stability via the introduction of Mg2+ in ZnB2O4:Mn2+ phosphor.

A narrow-band green-emitting phosphor ZnB2O4:Mn2+, Mg2+ was prepared by solid-state reactions. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the Rietveld structural refinements were performed. The results show that the introduction of Mg2+ may suppress the formation of an impurity phase. The micro-structure, photoluminescence (PL) and reflectance spectra, PL decay curves as well as thermal quenching behavior were investigated. The phosphors exhibit a broad absorption band from 200 to 510 nm, while the emission spectra show a narrow band centered at 538 nm with a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of about 34 nm. Furthermore, after the introduction of Mg2+, the luminescence intensity of phosphor ZnB2O4:0.07Mn2+, 0.10Mg2+ is significantly enhanced by about 2 times, and it presents a relatively low thermal quenching behavior. The corresponding mechanisms for performance improvement were investigated in detail and the ion-size compensation effect of Mg2+ to Mn2+ is proposed. Additionally, the high activation energy (0.202 eV) and ultra-high color purity (97%) were calculated. These results imply that the ZnB2O4:Mn2+, Mg2+ phosphor has broad application prospects in the field of advanced backlight display. Moreover, the introduction of Mg2+ may be useful as an effective strategy to enhance the luminescence properties and thermal stability of Mn2+ or even other element-doped phosphors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]