We report the observation of enhanced red emission at 613 nm originating from
5D
0 7F
2 transition ofEu
3+-doped CaMoO
4 with Bi
3+ as an additive, under excitation either into the
5L
6 state with 395 nm or the
5D
2 state with 465 nm. The luminescence properties as a function of Bi
3+ and Eu
3+ concentrations are studied.Strongly enhanced red emission of Eu
3+ is obtained by adding Bi
3+ instead of increasing the Eu
3+ concentration.For a fixed Eu
3+ concentration, there is an optimal Bi
3+ concentration, at which the maximum luminescenceintensity is achieved. The red emission of CaMoO
4:0.05Eu
3+ is enhanced by a factor of 3 as 0.2 Bi
3+ isco-doped into the system, stronger than that of commercial Y
2O
2S:Eu
3+ and Y
2O
3:Eu
3+ phosphors. Lifetimeand diffuse reflection spectra measurements indicate that the red emission enhancement is due to the enhancedtransition probabilities from the ground state to
5L
6 and
5D
2 states of Eu
3+ in the distorted crystal field inwhich it is considered that more odd-rank crystal field components are induced by crystal structural distortionand symmetry decreasing with the addition of Bi
3+, leading to more opposite parity components, for example,4f
55d states, mixed into the 4f
6 transitional levels of Eu
3+. The energy transfer from Bi
3+ to Eu
3+ also occursand is discussed. The present material is a promising red-emitting phosphor for white light diodes with near-UV/blue GaN-based chips.