Photo-luminescence of Er-doped ZnO

Kanyu Cao

Rare-earth elements has long been studied for its prominent properties of its emissions. Because the 4-f electrons of RE elements are buried deeply in the closed outer shells 5s, 5p, and 6s, the emission of 4-f electrons are very sharp and stable, i.e. the energy levels of 4-f electrons has little dependence on the host crystals. With more and more interest in the wide band gap III-V semiconductors, some research has been done on the optical properties of rare-earth-doped GaN. However, to our knowledge, no research has been done on the optical properties of rare-earth doped ZnO, which is considered a promising substrate for the growth of GaN thin film.

The research of our group is trying to investigate the optical properties of RE doped ZnO. As a first step, we measured the photo-luminescence(PL) of RE doped ZnO multicrystal tablets. Then we try to calculate the emissions by crystal field theory. The research will also include the temperature dependence of the PL, the excitation spectra, and the excitation kinetics.