Cost-effective way of improving the optical properties of phosphor-in-glass by adjusting the particle size of glass powder

The effects of silicate glass particle size and Y3Al5O12: Ce3+ (YAG: Ce3+) phosphor doping concentration on the optical properties of phosphor-in-glass (PiG) samples were investigated. When the average particle size of glass powder was 160, 100, 60, and 30 μm, the transmittance of silicate glass with a thickness of 0.6 mm was 68%, 78%, 62%, and 54%, respectively. With the mixing of 4 wt% YAG: Ce3+ phosphor in each component of silicate glass, the transmitted luminous flux of PiG gradually increased with the increase of transmittance, reaching a maximum of 179.5 lm. Simultaneously, we found that with the increase in transmittance, the photoluminescence (PL) intensity of PiG gradually decreased; however, the total luminous flux of PiG has independent of transmittance. When the doping concentration of YAG: Ce3+ phosphor was 4 wt%, PiG achieved a maximum efficient white light emission of 212.61 lm/W under blue laser excitation at 2.31 W. All results indicate the outstanding feasibility of the prepared YAG-PiG in high-power/high-brightness white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs).