Comparative investigations of the crystal structure and photoluminescence property of eulytite-type Ba₃Eu(PO₄)₃and Sr₃Eu(PO₄)₃

In this study, the Ba3Eu(PO4)3 and Sr3Eu(PO4)3 compounds were synthesized and the crystal structures were determined for the first time by Rietveld refinement using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Ba3Eu(PO4)3 crystallizes in cubic space group I43d, with cell parameters of a = 10.47996(9) Å, V = 1151.01(3) Å(3) and Z = 4; Ba(2+) and Eu(3+) occupy the same site with partial occupancies of 3/4 and 1/4, respectively. Besides, in this structure, there exists two distorted kinds of the PO4 polyhedra orientation. Sr3Eu(PO4)3 is isostructural to Ba3Eu(PO4)3 and has much smaller cell parameters of a = 10.1203(2) Å, V = 1036.52(5) Å(3). The bandgaps of Ba3Eu(PO4)3 and Sr3Eu(PO4)3 are determined to be 4.091 eV and 3.987 eV, respectively, based on the UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The photoluminescence measurements reveal that, upon 396 nm n-UV light excitation, Ba3Eu(PO4)3 and Sr3Eu(PO4)3 exhibit orange-red emission with two main peaks at 596 nm and prevailing 613 nm, corresponding to the (5)D0 → (7)F1 and (5)D0 → (7)F2 transitions of Eu(3+), respectively. The dynamic disordering in the crystal structures contributes to the broadening of the luminescence spectra. The electronic structure of the phosphates was calculated by the first-principles method. The analysis elucidats that the band structures are mainly governed by the orbits of phosphorus, oxygen and europium, and the sharp peaks of the europium f-orbit occur at the top of the valence bands.