The red-emitting Ca 4 YO(BO 3 ) 3 :Eu 3+ phosphor has been prepared at 1200 ยฐC by the simple solid-state reaction. This preparation temperature is much lower than Y 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ (1400-1500 ยฐC) for conventional solid-state reaction method. In particular, the complete process to produce high-quality phosphor particles was carried out through the single-step heat treatment of the mixture of corresponding oxide-type metal sources. For this material, the XRD, PL, PL excitation (PLE) and SEM features have also been investigated. The X-ray diffraction data indicate that pure phase of Ca 4 YO(BO 3 ) 3 :Eu 3+ can be successfully obtained. Among the different emission transitions 5 D 0 ? 7 F J=0, 1, 2, 3, 4 of this phosphor, one particular transition ( 5 D 0 ? 7 F 2 ) at 610 nm has been found. Besides carrying out these essential measurements, we have also made an attempt to observe a strong red emission performance displayed by this phosphor for use as coating material on compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). The results clearly indicate that the life time based on Ca 4 YO(BO 3 ) 3 :Eu 3+ was found to be much longer than that using Y 2 O 3 :Eu 3+ . The good performances of the CFLs demonstrate that this phosphor may be suitable for application on short ultraviolet fluorescent lamp.