Investigation of 4f-Related Electronic Transitions of Rare-Earth Doped ZnO Luminescent Materials: Insights from First-Principles Calculations.

Abstract

Rare-earth (RE) doped zinc oxides (ZnO) are regarded as promising materials for application in versatile color-tuned devices. However, the understanding of underlying luminescence mechanism and the rule of 4 f-related electronic transition is still limited, which is full of significance for the exploration of advanced RE-based ZnO phosphors. Thus, a series of ZnO : RE (RE=Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb) phosphors have been investigated by means of first-principles calculations. Meanwhile, we also consider the effect of native defects (VO , VZn ) on the luminescence of ZnO : RE phosphors. Accordingly, four types of electric-dipole allowed transition processes are figured out in ZnO : RE family. Additionally, we manifest that the VO can further improve the luminescent performance of ZnO : RE phosphors, and give insightful guidance to design desired RE-based ZnO materials with excellent luminescence.