Defect luminescence and its mediated physical properties in ZnO

• Published in: Journal of luminescence Vol. 208; pp. 225 - 237
• Main Authors: Lv, Jinpeng, Li, Chundong, Chai, Ziyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.04.2019
• ISSN: 0022-2313; 1872-7883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jlumin.2018.12.050

ZnO has promising potential applications in optoelectronic industry, attributed to its direct wide band gap (3.37 eV) and high exciton binding energy (60 meV). Optoelectronic properties depend on a firm understanding of the physics of defects and impurities in ZnO. In this short review, we will discuss the progress in the defect and impurities emission of ZnO, and the extended properties determined by native defects as well as the remaining challenges. Experimental results illustrated that the green luminescence induced by VO is peaked at 490 nm, while the typical emission around 503 nm correlates to DAP (donor-acceptor pair) recombination involving Cu+. As the isolated interstitial oxygen does not cause yellow emission, the interstitial zinc contributes to the 450 nm blue luminescence. For the VZn related luminescence, three peaks located at 414 nm, 525 nm and 600 nm can be expected, which originate from different charging state transition. Structured CuZn emission around 500 nm is presented in ZnO particles with purity as high as 99.99%. Li impurity in ZnO has two emission peaks around 430 nm and 580 nm, caused by Lii-LiZn and LiZn, respectively. NO is a deep acceptor and contributes to the 730 nm red emission. The 550 nm luminescence in Al-doped ZnO can be ascribed to the AlZn-Oi complex. The blue emission and orange/red emission in C-doped ZnO originate from C and C based defect complex, respectively. The Si impurity affects the visible luminescence of ZnO is through tailoring native defects or formation of luminescent Zn2SiO4 phase. In contrast to the prevailing view that VZn induces the diluted ferromagnetism in ZnO, we illustrated that adsorption oxygen facilitates the d° magnetism in metal oxides system. The radiation tolerance of ZnO is found to be determined by the interstitial zinc, which paves the way for ZnO application in radiative environments.