To develop the Ce

3+

and Tb

3+

co-activated LaPO

4

nanowires (NWs) green phosphors

a significant question should be considered: In one-dimensional NWs

how do the electronic transition and the energy transfer processes between Ce

3+

and Tb

3+

change in comparison with the bulk crystals? To our knowledge

there is no report on this topic until now. In practice

the studies on energy transfer processes between different rare earth centers in NWs are quite rare

too. Recently

we successfully fabricated Ce

3+

-activated

Tb

3+

-activated and Ce

3+

/Tb

3+

co-activated LaPO

4

NWs as well as micrometer rods (MRs) by the hydrothermal method. Their fluorescent spectra and dynamics were studied in contrast to the MRs. The results indicate that the structure of both the samples belongs to monoclinic phase. The intensity of Ce

3+

or Tb

3+

in MRs for singly doped samples increased a little in contrast to NWs. It is important that the intensity of Tb

3+

in NWs corresponding to Ce

3+

excitation increased 3-5 times than that in MRs. The extinction concentration of Ce

3+

and Tb

3+

in NWs increased than that in MRs. The electronic transition rate of Ce

3+

and Tb

3+

in NWs had only a little variation in comparison with that in MRs

and the energy transfer rate and efficiency of Ce

3+

Tb

3+

in NWs reduced. Surprisingly

the brightness for the

5

D

4

7

F

5

green emissions of Tb

3+

via energy transfer of Ce

3+

Tb

3+

in NWs increased several times than that in MRs. To reveal the origins of above phenomenon

the

5

D

3

level decay of Tb

3+

was measured. The results indicated that the decay curve included two proponents: a fast and a slow process. The slow proponent was dominant in NWs and fast proponent was dominant in MRs. We suggested that the slow proponent corresponded to the transition of

5

D

3

5

D

4

and fast proponent corres-ponded to the relaxation from

5

D

3

to other defect centers. The increased intensity of Tb

3+

in NWs via energy transfer excitation was attributed to the decreased energy loss in the excited states being higher than

5

D

4

due to the hindrance of the boundary.