High-Brightness Red-Emitting Phosphor La3(Si,Al)6(O,N)11:Ce3+ for Next-Generation Solid-State Light Sources.

A novel high-brightness red-emitting phosphor, La3(Si,Al)6(O,N)11:Ce3+ (LSA), which can potentially be used as a laser-excited light source, is demonstrated. Laser-excited phosphor system has great potential for use as a white-light source, as it is orders of magnitude brighter than white LEDs. Although conventional yellow-green phosphors show excellent luminescent properties even under high-power laser excitation, red-emitting phosphors, which are essential to achieve a high color-rendering index and low color-temperature, show quantum efficiency quenching. This limits the output power in multiphosphor excitation systems. Ce3+ should successfully tolerate high-power excitation due to the shortest emission lifetime seen in rare-earth ions, caused by the 5d1-4f1 spin-allowed transition; however, a red-emitting Ce3+-doped phosphor of practical use has not been realized. LSA is described by the crystal-field modification of a yellow-emitting phosphor, La3Si6N11:Ce3+, with substitution of Al in Si sites. LSA shows 640 nm red emission together with tolerance for high-power excitation and thermal quenching, suggesting its significant potential for industrial applications that require ultrahigh brightness.

Resonantly Enhanced Emission from a Luminescent Nanostructured Waveguide.

Controlling the characteristics of photon emission represents a significant challenge for both fundamental science and device technologies. Research on microcavities, photonic crystals, and plasmonic nanocavities has focused on controlling spontaneous emission by way of designing a resonant structure around the emitter to modify the local density of photonic states. In this work, we demonstrate resonantly enhanced emission using luminescent nanostructured waveguide resonance (LUNAR). Our concept is based on coupling between emitters in the luminescent waveguide and a resonant waveguide mode that interacts with a periodic nanostructure and hence outcouples via diffraction. We show that the enhancement of resonance emission can be controlled by tuning the design parameters. We also demonstrate that the enhanced emission is attributable to the accelerated spontaneous emission rate that increases the probability of photon emission in the resonant mode, accompanied by enhanced the local density of photonic states. This study demonstrates that nanostructured luminescent materials can be designed to exhibit functional and enhanced emission. We anticipate that our concept will be used to improve the performance of a variety of photonic and optical applications ranging from bio/chemical sensors to lighting, displays and projectors.