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Understanding thermal quenching of photoluminescence from first principles

Understanding the physical mechanisms behind thermal effects in phosphors is crucial for white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) applications, as thermal quenching of their photoluminescence might render them useless. The two chemically close Eu-doped \Hosta and \Hostb crystals are typical phosphors studied for WLEDs. The first one sustains efficient light emission at 100$^{\circ}$C while the second one emits very little light at that temperature. Herein, we analyze from first principles their electronic structure and atomic geometry, before and after absorption/emission of light. Our results, in which the Eu-5d levels are obtained inside the band gap thanks to the removal of an electron from the 4f$^7$ shell, attributes the above-mentioned experimental difference to an auto-ionization model of the thermal quenching, based on the energy difference between Eu$_{\text{5d}}$ and the conduction band minimum. For both Eu-doped phosphors, we identify the luminescent center, and we show that the atomic relaxation in their excited state is of crucial importance for a realistic description of the emission characteristics.