Strong f‐f Excitation and Bright Red Emission in Cd4Gd1‐xEuxO(BO3)3 (0≤x≤1): Near‐UV LED Pumped Red Phosphor with Low Thermal Quenching

Searching efficient red phosphors under near‐UV or blue light excitation is practically important to improve the current white light‐emitting diodes (WLEDs). Eu²⁺‐ and Mn⁴⁺‐based red phosphors have been extensively studied. Here we proposed that Eu³⁺ is also a promising activator when it resides on a noncentrosymmetric coordination site. We proved that Cd₄GdO(BO₃)₃ is a good host, which has a significantly distorted coordination for Eu³⁺. A careful crystallographic study was performed on the solid solutions of Cd₄Gd_1‐xEu_xO(BO₃)₃ (0≤x≤1) by Rietveld refinements. The as‐doped Eu³⁺ cations locate at the Gd³⁺ site and are well separated by CdO₈, CdO₆ and BO₃ groups; thus, only a slight concentration quenching was observed at ≈80 atom % Eu³⁺. Most importantly, the parity‐forbidden law of 4f‐4f transitions for Eu³⁺ are severely depressed, thus the absorptions at ≈393 and ≈465 nm are remarkable. Cd₄Gd_0.2Eu_0.8O(BO₃)₃ can be pumped by a 395 nm LED chip to give a bright red emission, and when mixed with other commercial blue and green phosphors, it can emit the proper white light (0.3657, 0.3613) with a suitable R_a≈87 and correlated colour temperature ≈4326 K. In‐situ photoluminescence study indicated the low thermal quenching of these borate phosphors, especially under 465 nm excitation. Our case proves the practicability to develop near‐UV excited red phosphors in rare‐earth‐containing borates.