A garnet Ca2GdZr2Ga3O12:Cr3+ phosphor with ultra-broadband near-infrared luminesce for night-vision and biomedical imaging

It is urgent and crucial to develop highly efficient broadband Near-infrared (NIR) phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes (pc-LEDs) which are applied in tiny solid-state NIR light sources. However, a lot of NIR phosphors suffer from low quantum yield and poor thermal stability in recent years. Hereon, the solid-state reaction synthesis process was used to create a new garnet Ca2GdZr2Ga3O12:Cr3+ (CGZG:Cr3+) phosphor, which can produce a broad range emission peak at (12,437 cm-1, 804 nm) with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of (67567 cm−1, 148 nm). At 373 °C, thermal stability was determined to be 76%, an IQE of 75% and an EQE of 26% was observed. When driving current at 150 mA and 320 mA, the device achieved the output power of 473 mW and 968 mW. The results demonstrate CGZG:Cr3+ phosphor-convert NIR LEDs have great potential for applications in night-vision and biomedical imaging NIR spectroscopy technology.