10.1021/jp502996t.s004 Mathijs de Jong Mathijs de Jong Andries Meijerink Andries Meijerink Robert A. Gordon Robert A. Gordon Zoila Barandiarán Zoila Barandiarán Luis Seijo Luis Seijo Is Bi<sup>2+</sup> Responsible for the Red-Orange Emission of Bismuth-Doped SrB<sub>4</sub>O<sub>7</sub>? American Chemical Society 2014 SrB 4O EPR Bi concentration ZPL Equivalent ab initio calculations Ab initio calculations emission ab initio calculations XANES luminescence 2014-05-08 00:00:00 Dataset https://acs.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Is_Bi_sup_2_sup_Responsible_for_the_Red_Orange_Emission_of_Bismuth_Doped_SrB_sub_4_sub_O_sub_7_sub_/2298904 Red-orange luminescence from bismuth-doped SrB<sub>4</sub>O<sub>7</sub> has previously been reported and assigned to 6p-6p transitions of divalent Bi. To provide support for this assignment and for the stability of this unusual valence state of Bi, we report here results from low-temperature luminescence spectroscopy, X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and wave function based ab initio calculations. Low-temperature luminescence spectra reveal zero-phonon lines (ZPLs) in excitation and emission spectra, allowing an accurate determination of the energies for the electronic transitions. The influence of the Bi concentration on the emission intensity is shown to be small, and only a small increase of the red-orange emission is observed upon raising the nominal Bi concentration from 0.02% (200 ppm) to 2%. This result indicates that only a very low concentration of Bi<sup>2+</sup> can be incorporated in SrB<sub>4</sub>O<sub>7</sub>. This observation is supported by EPR experiments, which do not show a signal that can be assigned to Bi<sup>2+</sup>, and by XANES experiments showing that most Bi is in the trivalent state. An upper limit of the Bi<sup>2+</sup> concentration is estimated to be 20 ppm. Ab initio calculations on the (BiO<sub>9</sub>)<sup>16–</sup> cluster embedded in SrB<sub>4</sub>O<sub>7</sub> give energies for excited states that are close to the experimentally observed energies. Also, the luminescence lifetime for the red-orange emission (∼12 μs) is consistent with the lifetime for 6p-6p emission calculated for the Bi<sup>2+</sup> emission (3.5 μs). Equivalent ab initio calculations for Bi<sup>2+</sup> luminescence are very far from the experimental results, providing independent evidence and additional support for the interpretation of stable Bi<sup>2+</sup> species being responsible for the red-orange luminescence. The calculations provide a new interpretation of the third excitation band, which is not due to a <sup>2</sup>S<sub>1/2</sub> state of the 6s<sup>2</sup>7s configuration of Bi<sup>2+</sup>, as previously assumed, but is due to a state with important characters of 6s6p<sup>2</sup>–<sup>4</sup>P (63%) and doublets of the 6s6p<sup>2</sup>, 6s<sup>2</sup>6d, and 6s<sup>2</sup>6p configurations; its higher intensity is due to its character of parity-allowed 6s → 6p and 6p → 6d excitations.