Recent Advancements in Rare-earth Activated Phosphors in the Perspective of Phototherapy and Plant Lamp Applications: A Review

Recently, rare-earth activated phosphors have gained new and exciting applications in various fields, like display and illumination, phototherapy, plant growth, etc. The phosphorconverted white light emitting diode is prime in the art of solid-state lighting owing to its numerous merits, including desired spectral distribution, excellent chemical and thermal stability, high operational lifetime, reliability, and color quality of w-LEDs for lighting. The enhancement of the color gamut of backlight w-LEDs still needs to be addressed, which requires the design of high-efficient downshifting converter phosphors featuring thermally stable luminescence. The class of materials under suitable activation exhibit applications in a particular field. The emission in the UV region (312-315nm) is widely used for phototherapy lamps. Phototherapy has proven to be an excellent therapeutic option for the treatment of various types of skin diseases. Moreover, the emission corresponds to 600-750nm for plant cultivation. The present review article describes various rare-earth activated phosphors and their impact on human and plant physiology.