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The effect of Mg doping concentration and annealing on the structure and luminescence properties of ZnO thin films

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Abstract

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between defects and luminescent properties in thin films, ZnO films containing 0 to 8 at % Mg were prepared on amorphous quartz substrates by room temperature radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, followed by annealing in air at 400 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate that the ZnMgO film is a solid solution with a hexagonal close-packed wurtzite structure and preferential c-axis growth direction. With the increase in Mg concentration, the intensity of the (002) diffraction peak gradually decreases. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) observations reveal a transition in surface particle shapes from approximately circular to a mixture of circular and irregular polygonal shapes. The optical bandgap (Eg), obtained from optical transmittance measured using a UV–visible spectrophotometer, decreases first and then increases with increasing Mg concentration. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra show a strong violet peak and a weak near-infrared (NIR) peak. Gaussian fitting of the two peaks reveals that the violet peak mainly originates from the radiative recombination of electrons bound to shallow donor interstitial zinc (Zni) with holes in the valence band. The NIR peak primarily arises from the radiative recombination of electrons captured by shallow donor interstitial zinc (Zni) with holes captured by deep-level acceptor interstitial oxygen (Oi).

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 11975173).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 11975173, Jing Luo

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics, School of Science, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430065, China

    Jing Luo, Hongyu Liu, Weijie Deng, Rengang Zhang & Chen He

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  1. Jing Luo
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  2. Hongyu Liu
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  3. Weijie Deng
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  4. Rengang Zhang
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  5. Chen He
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Contributions

Hongyu Liu provided ideas and guided the design of research plans, and Jing Luo implemented the research process, collected and sorted out data and wrote a thesis. During the experiment, technical was supported by Rengang Zhang, Weijie Deng and Chen He.

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Correspondence to Hongyu Liu.

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Luo, J., Liu, H., Deng, W. et al. The effect of Mg doping concentration and annealing on the structure and luminescence properties of ZnO thin films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 744 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12520-9

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