Publications Details
Nature of the green luminescent center in zinc oxide
We apply a number of complementary characterization techniques including electron paramagnetic resonance, optical absorption, and photoluminescence spectroscopies to characterize a wide range of different ZnO phosphor powders. We generally observe a good correlation between the 510-nm green emission intensity and the density of paramagnetic isolated oxygen vacancies. In addition, both quantities are found to peak at a free-carrier concentration ne, of about 1.4×1018 cm-3. We also find that the green emission intensity can be strongly influenced by free-carrier depletion at the particle surface, especially for small particles and/or low doping. Our data suggest that the green PL in ZnO phosphors is due to the recombination of electrons in singly occupied oxygen vacancies with photoexcited holes in the valence band.