Green emission of indium oxide <i>via</i> hydrogen treatment

Abstract

In this work, we prepared hydrogen treated indium oxide (H₂-In₂O₃) and investigated the effect of hydrogen treatment on the optical and photoluminescence properties of In₂O₃. Hydrogen treatment has no influence on the crystal structure, but alters the intrinsic electronic structure and optical properties <i>via</i> introducing hydrogen induced defects such as shallow donor states (near the conduction band) and singly ionized oxygen vacancies in H₂-In₂O₃. Both air-In₂O₃ (air calcinated) and H₂-In₂O₃ show intense blue emission under UV excitation (280 nm). However, hydrogen treated In₂O₃ exhibited an additional green emission, which is absent in air-In₂O₃. This green emission arises from the passivation of singly ionized oxygen vacancies by hydrogen treatment. Hydrogen treatment could be a promising strategy to tune the electronic and optical properties of In₂O₃.