Understanding the quenching nature of Mn in wide band gap inorganic compounds: design principles for Mn phosphors with higher efficiency.

Mn4+ doped phosphors, as an alternative to rare-earth element doped phosphors, have attracted immense attention owing to their ultrahigh quantum efficiency of red emission for potential applications in high rendering white LEDs (light-emitting diodes). Their performance can be largely affected by quenching phenomena such as thermal quenching, concentration quenching and the quenching induced by some intrinsic/extrinsic defects. However, the quenching mechanisms due to the defect levels and host band are still incompletely understood.