The discovery of phosphor materials that can be excited around 380 or 460 nm is essential for improving the efficiency and light quality of LED-based solid-state lighting devices. We have found, for the first time, a luminescent cerium compound emitting bright red light. CaSiN2:Ce3+ is a new phase in the calcium silicon nitride ternary system that crystallizes in a face-centered cubic unit cell with a lattice parameter of a = 14.8822(5) angstrom. This compound can be used for white light applications: (i) to enhance the light quality of the system based on a blue LED with a yellow/green phosphor, (ii) as the red phosphor in the UV LED plus three RGB phosphors setup or (iii) directly as a yellow phosphor with a 460 nm LED due to the emission/excitation band shift with chemical substitution. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.