Electroluminescence from ZnO/Si heterojunctions fabricated by PLD with bias voltage application

Electroluminescence (EL) for ZnO films has been investigated by fabricating n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunctions and changing the VI/II (O/Zn) ratio of the films. In the photoluminescence (PL) spectra, both the near band edge (NBE) emission and the defect-related emission were observed, while in the EL spectra only defect-related emission was observed. The EL spectra were divided into three components: green (550 nm), yellow (618 nm) and red (700 nm) bands; and their intensities were compared. As the VI/II (O/Zn) ratio was increased, the red band emission intensity decreased and the green band emission intensity increased. This implies that the oxygen and the zinc vacancies are related to the red and the green band emissions, respectively. Electron transitions from the conduction band minimum (Ec) to the deep energy levels of these vacancies are suggested to cause the red and the green luminescences while the energy levels of the Zn interstitials are close to the Ec in the band gap and no NBE emission is observed