A novel extra-broadband visible-NIR phosphor doped with Ce3+ and Cr3+ towards multifunctional advanced applications

Phosphors that can emit broadband light from visible to near infrared (NIR) may have applications in the fields like white-light illumination and NIR vessel visualization, the investigation on single phase extra-broadband visible-NIR emitting phosphor is of great significance. Herein, an extra-broadband phosphor with tunable visible-NIR emission from 500 nm to longer than 900 nm (bandwidth >400 nm) was successfully prepared, which originates from the emission of Ce3+ (peaking at 573 nm), Cr3+ (peaking at 750 nm) and energy transfer from Ce3+ to Cr3+ in Y3MgAl3SiO12 garnet. The influences of Ce3+/Cr3+ doping concentration and working temperature were discussed systematically by luminescence spectra and decay curves. A visible-NIR full-spectrum phosphor-converted light emitting diode (pc-LED) fabricated with a 460 nm LED chip and Y3MgAl3SiO12:0.03Ce3+, 0.01Cr3+ can generate bright white light and broadband NIR light simultaneously. The co-doping of Ce3+ can perfectly compensate for the missing spectrum of Cr3+ in the visible region, thanks to the extra-broadband emission of Ce3+ in visible region and Cr3+ in NIR region, multifunctional advanced applications may be realized for the prepared phosphors.