Blue-light emission from sputtered Ti:SiO2 films without annealing

Abstract

Blue-light emission from Ti:SiO2 sputtered films was observed at room temperature without annealing and it could be seen by the naked eye. The peaks of photoluminescence spectra were located at 3.03–3.05 eV and full width at half maximum ranged from 0.38–0.40 eV, which were almost the same in samples having different energies of absorption edge. SiOx layers may contribute to emission, which are interfacial regions between Ti particles and surrounding SiO2 medium, and the size of Ti particles may affect the efficiency of emission.