Broadband Excited YAlO3:Cr3+, Er3+ Phosphors for Enhancing the Spectral Response of GaSb Solar Cell

ABSTRACT We report Er3+ emission in YAlO3 host, sensitized by Cr3+. The excitation bands of Cr3+ at 416 and 555 nm are broad and effectively cover the region 400–600 nm. The phosphor can be useful for converting 400–600 nm radiations to infrared (IR) light around 1521 nm. This property can be useful for enhancing the spectral response of some solar cells such as GaSb to wavelengths below 600 nm down to 400 nm for which the photovoltaic conversion is poor. The structure is slanted from cubic to orthorhombic. The space group is Pbnm. In this structure, yttrium occupies 4c Wyckoff site and is in 8 coordination. Al is at 4b site and is coordinated with 6 O atoms. There exist two types of local symmetries for oxygen atoms which lie at the Wyckoff positions 8d and 4c.