Band-edge emission of undoped and doped ZnO single crystals at room temperature

Abstract

Band-edge emission of ZnO at around room temperature was investigated by measuring the temperature dependence of cathodoluminescence spectra at 20–300 K. Undoped crystals grown by a vapor transport method and Al-doped crystals by flux method were employed to elucidate the effect of doping on luminescence properties. For the Al-doped crystals, the free-exciton emission was weak through out the temperature range T<300 K. The most intense emission peak of the Al-doped crystal was energetically close to bound exciton annihilation emission. On the other hand, for undoped crystals, it was found that the most intense emission peak at room temperature was at E≈Eg−60 meV and this peak was not assignable to free-exciton annihilation emission. It was also found that this peak is not a reason for the reduction in emission efficiency.