Study of narrow and intense UV electroluminescence from ITO/SRO/Si-p and ITO/SRN/SRO/Si-p based light emitting capacitors

In this work, multiple narrow and highly intense ultraviolet (UV) electroluminescent (EL) bands were observed in light emitting capacitors (LECs) using silicon rich oxide (SRO) films as active layer. Besides, the effect of a thin silicon rich nitride (SRN) film on top of the SRO (as SRN/SRO bilayer) layer was also studied. LECs were fabricated using simple metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structures with indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum as gate and substrate electrodes, respectively. SRO and SRN films contain 41.85±1.1 and 46.96±1.1 at% of silicon, respectively. Both structures exhibited a resistance switching (RS) behavior from a high conduction state (HCS) to a low conduction state (LCS), enhancing an intense UV EL. This RS behavior produces structural changes in the active layer and probably in the ITO contact. Seven narrow bands with half-peak width of 7±0.6 nm at ~250, 270, 285, 305, 325, 415 and 450 nm were clearly observed once the LCS was reached. These bands could be related to a combination of emissions through defects inside SRO (252, 288.2 and 415 nm), and characteristic radiation of neutral tin (252.39 and 286.33 nm), neutral indium (271.02, 303.93 and 325.85 nm), single (444.82 nm) and doubly ionized indium (403.07 nm). Furthermore, red EL was observed at the HCS and it was similar to the PL spectra indicating the same radiative process involved. The charge transport is improved when the SRN/SRO bilayer is used as active layer in the LEC. An EL band at ~590 nm is observed when the SRN/SRO bilayer is formed at both conduction states. This band has been observed before and attributed to transitions from the minimum conduction band to K° centers in SRN films. The conduction mechanism responsible of the EL at both conduction states was also studied.