Creating a blue-light-excitable, ultra-broadband and relatively long-wavelength near-infrared emission in Cr 3+ -activated garnet by controlling cationic disorder.

A series of garnet-type solid-solution materials, namely Na x Ca 3-2 x Gd x In 2 Ge 3 O 12 :Cr 3+ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1.5), were created by introducing cationic disorder into the dodecahedral site, and were found to exhibit a nearly unchanged excitation peak in the blue light region, a wide-range spectral tunability (800-905 nm) and an ultra-broadband spectral coverage ( fwhm max = 205 nm).