Abstract
We demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of localized surface plasmon (LSP)-enhanced n-ZnO quantum dot (QD)/MgO/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by embedding Ag nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) into the ZnO/MgO interface. The maximum enhancement ration of the Ag-NP-decorated LEDs in electroluminescence (EL) is 4.3-fold by optimizing MgO electron-blocking layer thickness. The EL origination was investigated qualitatively in terms of photoluminescence (PL) results. Through analysis of the energy band structure of device and carrier transport mechanisms, it suggests that the EL enhancement is attributed to the increased rate of spontaneous emission and improved internal quantum efficiency induced by exciton-LSP coupling.
Highlights
Semiconductor nanoparticles termed quantum dots (QDs) have drawn wide attention in recent years as lightemitting source for light-emitting diode (LED) applications, whose emission spectrum with narrow linewidth can be tuned by changing the energy bandgaps with the variation in QD sizes and shapes [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
ZnO QDs synthesized through a chemical-precipitation approach in the presence of Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O (99.0 % purity) and NaOH (96.0 % purity), and the reaction process proceeds in detail can be found in previous reports [31, 32]
It can be seen that the interplanar spacing in the crystalline petal is 0.26 nm in the inset of Fig. 1c, which correspond in the (002) planes of wurtzite ZnO, indicating the good crystallinity of the ZnO QDs
Summary
Semiconductor nanoparticles termed quantum dots (QDs) have drawn wide attention in recent years as lightemitting source for light-emitting diode (LED) applications, whose emission spectrum with narrow linewidth can be tuned by changing the energy bandgaps with the variation in QD sizes and shapes [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. The widespread employment of heavy metal ions, Cd and Pb, are a serious hazard to human health as well as to the environment [14]. It necessitates alternative approaches for developing QD-LEDs with the heavy-metal free composition. Many reports are mainly focused on the LSP-enhanced LEDs based on ZnO nanorods; there has been no literature concerning the LSP-enhanced EL emission in ZnO QD-based LED structure
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