Patent ID: 8114313

Claim:
A phosphor comprising: an inorganic crystal having a crystal structure of an AlN crystal or an AlN solid solution crystal, the inorganic crystal comprising: a wurtzite-type AlN crystal structure, a crystal structure selected from 2H δ ; 27R; 21R; 12H; 15R; and 8H, a crystal structure having an Al(O, N) 4 tetrahedron skeleton therein, or a combination thereof; and at least europium incorporated therein as a solid solution, wherein a composition of the phosphor is given by Eu a A b Al c Si d O e N f (here, A is one or two or more kinds of elements selected from Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Zn, and Cd, and a+b+c+d+e+f=1) and following conditions are satisfied: 0.00001≦a≦0.1 (i); 0.0001≦b≦0.2 (ii); 0.4≦c≦0.55 (iii); 0.005≦d≦0.2 (iv); 0.001≦e≦0.05 (v); and 0.3≦f≦0.55 (vi), and wherein the phosphor emits fluorescence being derived from a divalent europium ion and having a peak at a wavelength in a range of 430 nm to 500 nm upon exposure to an excitation source.