The co-emission of ZnO thin film and its luminescent glass substrate

Abstract

ZnO thin film is grown on luminescent glass substrate by so-gel method. The structural and morphological characterization demonstrates the formation of ZnO with wurtzite structure. Temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) of ZnO thin film on the glass substrate has been investigated from 10 to 300 K. The results indicate that the characteristic emission of glass substrate and the excitonic-related recombination luminescence of ZnO co-occur at low temperature. The emission peaks of A free exciton, A-excion-related exciton bound to donors, and phonon replica from ZnO have been clearly observed. Moreover, the temperature dependence of A exciton peak positions can be fitted to two standard equations by the least-squares method. The related thermal parameters and the band gaps of ZnO at 0 K are also obtained. The co-emission peak of ZnO thin film and the glass substrate is approximately 125 meV lower than the characteristic peak of ZnO at room temperature. The double-layered structure achieves the emission towards the longer wavelength relative to the characteristic emission of ZnO, which can meet the demand of the specific wavelength emission in practical applications.