Cationic substitution engineering achieves higher efficiency and thermal stability of Cr3+-activated phosphor for pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) development

Nowadays, near-infrared phosphor-converted light emitting diodes (NIR pc-LEDs) attract wide attention since the NIR spectroscopy technique can exert itself in many fields. However, most of the developed NIR phosphors are still not commercially viable, because of low internal/external quantum yield and poor thermal resistance. Therefore, it is urgent to develop an efficient irradiance and thermal stable NIR phosphor. In this work, the new GdAl3-x-yGay(BO3)4: xCr3+ phosphors, compared with the original phosphor (x = 0.03, y = 0), when x = 0.03, y = 0.2, the luminescence intensity increased by 2.1 times, and the thermal resistance jumped from 92.0% to 96.7%. At the same time, with the increase of Ga3+, the spectra were gradually red shifted and FWHM widened, attributing to the nephelauxetic effect and the electron-phonon coupling effect enhanced, respectively. Partic-ularly, under 420 nm excitation, the internal and external quantum yield of GdAl2.77Ga0.2(BO3)4: 0.03Cr3+ were 93.4% and 35.5%, respectively, which is higher than the previous research. The electric-optical conversion ef-ficiency of the pc-LED was 10.76%. Finally, the phosphor application experiments revealed that the prepared phosphor has a very high commercial application potential.