Photoluminescence characteristics and energy transfer between Bi~（3＋） and Eu~（3＋） in Na_2O–CaO–GeO_2–SiO_2 glass

We report the photoluminescence（PL） of Eu^3＋-doped glass with Bi^3＋as a sensitizer. The specific glass system with the strong enhancement of the red emission of Eu3＋is obtained by adding a small number of Bi3＋ions instead of increasing the Eu^3＋ concentration. The emission band of Bi3＋overlaps with the excitation band of Eu^3＋ and the lifetime decay curves,resulting in a very efficient energy transfer from Bi^3＋ to Eu^3＋. The probability of energy transfer is strongly dependent on Bi^3＋ concentration. In addition, the intensity of 4f–4f transition is much stronger than that of a charge-transfer（CT） band in the excitation spectrum, which indicates that the Na2O–Ca O–Ge O2-Si O2 glass is a suitable red-emitting phosphor with high stability as a candidate for light-emitting diodes（LEDs）.