Improved thermal stability of the near‐infrared Al‐modulated Zn3Ga2GeO8: Cr3+ phosphors for plant growth applications

Abstract The exploration of the high thermal stability near‐infrared (NIR) phosphors is significantly crucial for the development of plant lighting. However, NIR phosphors suffer from the poor chemical and thermal stability, which severely limits their long‐term operation. Here, the successful improvement of luminous intensity (149.5%) and thermal stability at 423 K of Zn 3 Ga 2 GeO 8 (ZGGO): Cr 3+ phosphors is achieved for the introduction of Al 3+ ions into the host. The release of carriers in deep traps inhibits the emission loss for the thermal disturbance. Furthermore, an NIR light emitting diodes (LEDs) lamp is explored by combining the optimized Zn 3 Ga 1.1675 Al 0.8 GeO 8 : 0.0325Cr 3+ phosphors with a commercial 460 nm blue chip, and the emission band can match well with the absorption bands of photosynthetic pigments and the phytochrome (P R and P FR ) of plants. The explored LEDs lamp further determines the growth and the pheromone content of the involved plants for the participation of the NIR emission originated from Cr 3+ ions. Our work provides a promising NIR lamp as plant light with improved thermal stability for long‐term operation.