Local structure of the Ce(3+) ion in the yellow emitting phosphor YAG:Ce

The local structure of the Ce3+ ion in the yellow emitting YAG:Ce phosphor has been studied by Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure spectroscopy in the 20-300 K temperature range. It is shown that the dopant Ce3+ replaces Y3+ in the garnet structure, giving rise to a significant expansion of the distorted cubic local structure, limited to the nearest neighbours coordination sphere only. The experimental Ce-O distances in the YAG structure obtained in this study are in good agreement with the recently published values, derived from periodic-boundary-conditions density functional theory calculations