Comparison on electrically pumped random laser actions of hydrothermal and sputtered ZnO films

Random lasing (RL) in polycrystalline ZnO films is an intriguing research subject. Here, we have comparatively investigated electrically pumped RL behaviors of two metal-insulator-semiconductor structured devices using the hydrothermal and sputtered ZnO films as the semiconductor components, i.e., t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of applied physics Vol. 114; no. 13
Main Authors Wang, Canxing, Jiang, Haotian, Li, Yunpeng, Ma, Xiangyang, Yang, Deren
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 07.10.2013
Subjects
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CRYSTAL GROWTH
LIGHT SCATTERING
MATERIALS SCIENCE
METALS
OPTICAL PUMPING
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE
POLYCRYSTALS
POROUS MATERIALS
RANDOMNESS
SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SOLUTIONS
SPUTTERING
STIMULATED EMISSION
SURFACE COATING
THRESHOLD CURRENT
ZINC OXIDES
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Summary:Random lasing (RL) in polycrystalline ZnO films is an intriguing research subject. Here, we have comparatively investigated electrically pumped RL behaviors of two metal-insulator-semiconductor structured devices using the hydrothermal and sputtered ZnO films as the semiconductor components, i.e., the light-emitting layers, respectively. It is demonstrated that the device using the hydrothermal ZnO film exhibits smaller threshold current and larger output optical power of the electrically pumped RL. The morphological characterization shows that the hydrothermal ZnO film is somewhat porous and is much rougher than the sputtered one, suggesting that in the former stronger multiple light scattering can occur. Moreover, the photoluminescence characterization indicates that there are fewer defects in the hydrothermal ZnO film than in the sputtered one, which means that the photons can pick up larger optical gain through stimulated emission in the hydrothermal ZnO film. Therefore, it is believed that the stronger multiple light scattering and larger optical gain contribute to the improved performance of the electrically pumped RL from the device using the hydrothermal ZnO film.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.4824176