Intense Photoluminescence and Mechanoluminescence of Novel BaLaAl 3 O 7  :  x Eu 3+ Red Nanophosphors

A series of BaLaAl 3 O 7 : x Eu 3+ nanophosphors have been prepared by the high‐temperature solid state reaction method. The XRD and SEM characterization results present that there exists a slight influence on the crystal structure and the average particle size of the nanophosphors while the Eu 3+ ions are doped into the matrix. The intense and narrow red photoluminescence spectra have been measured under the ultraviolet excitation and there are two optimal Eu 3+ concentrations of 0.8 and 12 mol %, respectively, and the intensity of the former is stronger than that of the latter. Furthermore, the mechanoluminescence phenomena with the same color are also observed when the samples are scratched with a pen. The calculated results based on the measurements of thermoluminescence spectra reveal that the total initial concentration of trapped carriers of BaLaAl 3 O 7 : 12Eu 3+ nanophosphors is larger than that of BaLaAl 3 O 7 : 0.8Eu 3+ sample, which causes the change trend of ML intensity to be opposite to that of PL intensity even though both have the same Eu 3+ doping concentrations.