Luminescence enhancement and potential application of sky-blue sulfide phosphor doped with promoter

The luminescence of the ZnS:Tm phosphor was enhanced by the addition of a KCl promoter, and a white phosphor was prepared for potential white-light applications. It was found that a high synthesis temperature and high TmF₃ concentration promoted the substitution of Tm³⁺ ions for Zn²⁺ ions. KCl doping facilitated the growth of the hexagonal phase and decreased the phase transformation temperature of ZnS. In addition, the luminescence center concentration, excitation energy absorption, effective energy transfer, charge balance, and luminescence intensity of the phosphor were improved by the addition of the KCl promoter. The emission pattern and peaks of the ZnS:Tm,KCl phosphor were similar to those of the ZnS:Tm phosphor, indicating that the ligand field variation of Tm³⁺ caused by KCl doping was small. When the sky-blue ZnS:Tm,KCl phosphor was blended with a yellow ZnS:Mn,KCl phosphor in 1:1 weight ratio, white-light emission was observed under excitation from a 6-W ultraviolet lamp (1,350 μW/cm², λ?=?254 nm). The Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage coordinates were (0.36, 0.35), and the luminance intensity was 28.1 cd/m².