Tuning Photoluminescence in K3YSi2O7

Our collaborative paper with the group of Zhiguo Xia in South China University of Technology on “Engineering of K3YSi2O7 To Tune Photoluminescence with Selected Activators and Site Occupancy” has been published in Chemistry of Materials. We have discovered the Eu- and Ce-activated K3YSi2O7 phosphors, which exhibit orange-red and green emission, respectively. Using DFT calculations, we show that Eu2+ occupies both K1 and Y2 crystallographic sites, while Ce3+ and Eu3+ only occupy the Y2 site. Hence, the broad-band red emission of Eu2+ are attributed to a small DFT band gap (3.69 eV) of K3YSi2O7 host and a selective occupancy of Eu2+ in a highly distorted K1 site and a high crystal field splitting around Y2 sites.