Abstract
Morphological and optical characteristics of radio frequency-sputtered zinc aluminum oxide over porous silicon (PS) substrates were studied before and after irradiating composite films with 130 MeV of nickel ions at different fluences varying from 1 × 1012 to 3 × 1013 ions/cm2. The effect of irradiation on the composite structure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. Current–voltage characteristics of ZnO-PS heterojunctions were also measured. As compared to the granular crystallites of zinc oxide layer, Al-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) layer showed a flaky structure. The PL spectrum of the pristine composite structure consists of the emission from the ZnO layer as well as the near-infrared emission from the PS substrate. Due to an increase in the number of deep-level defects, possibly oxygen vacancies after swift ion irradiation, PS-Al-doped ZnO nanocomposites formed with high-porosity PS are shown to demonstrate a broadening in the PL emission band, leading to the white light emission. The broadening effect is found to increase with an increase in the ion fluence and porosity. XRD study revealed the relative resistance of the film against the irradiation, i.e., the irradiation of the structure failed to completely amorphize the structure, suggesting its possible application in optoelectronics and sensing applications under harsh radiation conditions.
Highlights
Nowadays, efforts are being made to look for suitable types of nanocomposites for optoelectronic applications
It is easy to get the red emission from the porous silicon (PS), and if it could be added with any other semiconductor with emission in the blue green region, it could be useful to obtain the white light through a simple route for possible applications like the display technology [4,10]
We have investigated the ion irradiation effects on Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films deposited onto the mesoporous silicon substrate and shown a white light emission from the resulting composites after irradiating with high-energy nickel ions
Summary
Efforts are being made to look for suitable types of nanocomposites for optoelectronic applications. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) is considered as an important material for its application as a transparent electrode in flat panel displays [4] due reported that the blue luminescence band with a relatively fast decay time is observed in the oxidized PS samples. It is easy to get the red emission from the PS, and if it could be added with any other semiconductor with emission in the blue green region, it could be useful to obtain the white light through a simple route for possible applications like the display technology [4,10]. Apart from that, our group recently demonstrated the importance of PS-ZnO composites for sensing application through a control over the spacial distribution of zinc oxide and its transport properties on the porosity of the PS substrate [11]
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