The present and future prospects of electroluminescent phosphors

Significant progress in the performance and commercialization of color thin‐film electroluminescent (EL) displays has been achieved. This is due to the remarkable progress made in the performance of existing EL phosphors, development of new phosphor materials, and design of new EL phosphor structures. The physics of materials and luminescent centers of current EL phosphors (ZnS:Mn2+, ZnS:RE3+, SrS:Ce3+, and SrGa2S4:Ce3+) are reviewed. As potential EL phosphors, metal oxides, yttrium oxides, oxysulfides, fluorides, and mixed‐crystal‐based phosphors are discussed. Multilayered and superlattice‐structured EL phosphors are also discussed. The basic physics of the materials, host lattices, and luminescent centers is important in the development of novel EL phosphors.