Catholuminescence properties of rare earth doped CaSnO3 phosphor.

The present study describes cathodoluminescence (CL) properties of CaSnO3 phosphors doped with Eu(3+), Tb(3+) and Dy(3+) synthesized by a solid-state method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns confirm that CaSnO3 sintered at 1200°C exhibits orthorhombic structure. The evidence and rationale for two strong broad emission bands appeared at 360 and 780nm for undoped CaSnO3 are presented. The CL measurements exhibit that the 4f-4f emissions from (5)D4→(7)F6 (490nm), (5)D4 →(7)F5 (544nm), (5)D4 →(7)F4 (586nm) and (5)D4 →(7)F3 (622nm), assigned to possible transitions of Tb(3+) ions are seen. The strongest one, observed at 544nm, due to its probability of both magnetic and electric transitions make the sample emission green. Emissions at 480, 574, 662 and 755nm were detected for the CaSnO3:Dy(3+) and attributed to the transitions from the (4)F9/2 to various energy levels (6)H15/2, (6)H13/2, (6)H11/2 and (6)H9/2+(6)F11/2 of Dy(3+), respectively. CL spectra of Eu doped CaSnO3 reveal that there is a strong emission peak appeared at 615nm due to the electric dipole transition (5)D0→(7)F2 (red). Finally, our results show that the rare earth doped CaSnO3 have remarkable potential for applications as optical materials since it exhibits efficient and sharp emission due to rare earth ions.