Xiaoming Mo

Zero-biased near-ultraviolet and visible photodetector based on ZnO nanorods/n-Si heterojunction

N-ZnO nanorods/n-silicon heterojunction was fabricated by growth of ZnO nanorods on a n-type silicon (111) wafer with a low-temperature aqueous solution method. Capacitance-voltage measurements revealed that after annealing at 900 °C in O2 ambient for 1 h, the heterojunction changed from abrupt N-ZnO nanorods/n-silicon to graded P-ZnO/n-silicon junction. The annealed diode showed good photoresponse in both the ultraviolet and visible regions with responsivity around 0.3 and 0.5 A/W without bias. The photoresponses toward ultraviolet and visible light were enhanced when the diode was under reverse and forward bias, respectively. The results were discussed in terms of phosphorus diffusion process and the band diagrams of the heterojunctions in this work.

Improved and color tunable electroluminescence from n-ZnO/HfO2/p-GaN heterojunction light emitting diodes

n-ZnO/HfO2/p-GaN based heterojunction light emitting diodes were fabricated using a radio frequency magnetron sputtering system. The electroluminescence measurements revealed that dominant violet emissions centered at around 415 nm were emitted and improved performances were observed for the devices with the HfO2 intermediate layer; the color of the devices could be tuned from violet (0.18, 0.10) to cold white (0.22, 0.20) by varying the Ar/O2 flow ratio during the deposition of HfO2, which are probably ascribed to the deep level emission bands in ZnO. The results were studied by peak-deconvolution with Gaussian functions and were discussed in terms of band diagram of the heterojunctions.

A ZnO/ZnMgO Multiple-Quantum-Well Ultraviolet Random Laser Diode

A ZnO/ZnMgO multiple-quantum-well ultraviolet (UV) random laser diode was fabricated on a commercially available n-type GaN wafer using a radio frequency magnetron sputtering system. The electroluminescence measurements revealed that the diode exhibited fairly pure UV random lasing centered at ~370 nm under sufficient forward bias at room temperature. The full-widths at half-maximum of the sharp lasing peaks are less than 0.4 nm. The device has a very low threshold current density of 4.7 A/cm2 and extremely weak visible emission.

ZnO-Based Fairly Pure Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes With a Low Operation Voltage

A ZnO-based metal-insulator (HfO2) -semiconductor diode was synthesized on a commercially available n+-GaN/sapphire substrate using a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering system. Electroluminescence measurements revealed that the diode exhibited fairly pure ultraviolet (UV) emission peaking at ~ 370 nm with a line width of less than 8 nm. By choosing a proper thickness of the insulator HfO2 layer, the threshold voltage of the emission could be reduced to 2 V, demonstrating that this ZnO-based fairly pure UV light-emitting diode can be driven by two ordinary dry batteries. The reason for low threshold voltage is proposed in terms of the n+-GaN/sapphire substrate and the high-k insulator HfO2 layer.

Improved and orange emission from an n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction light emitting device with NiO as the intermediate layer

n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction light emitting devices with and without a NiO intermediate layer were fabricated using a radio frequency magnetron sputtering system. Electroluminescence measurements revealed that the device with the NiO intermediate layer exhibits a sharper and stronger orange emission peaks at ∼670 nm compared with that of the device without the NiO layer. And the light output-current characteristic of the n-ZnO/NiO/p-Si heterojunction device follows a nearly linear relationship (L ∝ I) rather than the superlinear relationship (L ∝ I1.5) for the n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction device. This work indicates that the NiO intermediate layer could effectively improve the performance of the n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction light emitting device.

Seedless synthesis of layered ZnO nanowall networks on Al substrate for white light electroluminescence

In this paper, layered ZnO nanowall networks were directly grown on Al substrates using a hydrothermal method without predepositing seed layers. The individual ZnO nanowalls with a thickness of several nanometers and a size of several hundred nanometers were (002) surface dominated, in which the preferential growth direction of ZnO was suppressed. White electroluminescence devices were fabricated based on Au/polymethylmethacrylate/ZnO-nanowall (metal-insulator-semiconductor) structures. The chromaticity coordinate of the electroluminescence spectrum for the optimal device was calculated as (0.27, 0.34), which is close to (0.33, 0.33) of standard white light.

Ultraviolet/orange bicolor electroluminescence from an n-ZnO/n-GaN isotype heterojunction light emitting diode

We fabricate an ultraviolet (UV)/orange bicolor light emitting diode (LED) based on an n-ZnO/n-GaN isotype heterojunction, which presents a sharp ultraviolet emission centered at 367 nm and a broad orange emission centered at 640 nm under forward and reverse biases, respectively. Time dependence electroluminescence (EL) measurements reveal that this device shows good stability. The electroluminescence mechanism of the bicolor light emitting diode is discussed in terms of the material properties of the interfacial layer and the luminescence properties of the device in this work.

Enhancement of ultraviolet electroluminescence based on n-ZnO/n-GaN isotype heterojunction with low threshold voltage

Ultraviolet light-emitting diodes based on simple n-ZnO/n-GaN isotype heterojunction have been fabricated using a radio frequency magnetron sputtering system. Ultraviolet emission peaking around ∼368 nm with a full-width at half maximum of ∼7 nm was observed at room temperature when the devices were under sufficient forward bias. With the presence of an i-MgO layer inserted between the ZnO and GaN layers, the ultraviolet emission intensity and output power have been much enhanced, while the threshold voltage drops down to 2.5 V. The electroluminescence mechanisms in these devices were discussed in terms of the band diagrams of the heterojunctions.

Electroluminescence from ZnO-nanorod-based double heterostructured light-emitting diodes

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with MgZnO/ZnO/MgZnO double heterojunction structure have been fabricated and the room temperature electroluminescence (EL) spectra have been studied. With the help of double heterostructure, LEDs show better visible EL performance than that of LED with ordinary p-i-n structure. By replacing ZnO film with ZnO nanorod arrays in this double heterostructure, strong ultraviolet EL emission around 380 nm was achieved. The ZnO-nanorod-based double heterostructured light-emitting diode exhibits superior stability with an intensity degradation of less than 3% over 8 h. The EL mechanisms were discussed in terms of carrier confinement and carrier transport based on semiconductor heterojunction theory.

Enhanced ultraviolet electroluminescence and spectral narrowing from ZnO quantum dots/GaN heterojunction diodes by using high-k HfO2 electron blocking layer

We demonstrated the capability of realizing enhanced ZnO-related UV emissions by using the low-cost and solution-processable ZnO quantum dots (QDs) with the help of a high-k HfO2 electron blocking layer (EBL) for the ZnO QDs/p-GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Full-width at half maximum of the LED devices was greatly decreased from ∼110 to ∼54 nm, and recombinations related to nonradiative centers were significantly suppressed with inserting HfO2 EBL. The electroluminescence of the ZnO QDs/HfO2/p-GaN LEDs demonstrated an interesting spectral narrowing effect with increasing HfO2 thickness. The Gaussian fitting revealed that the great enhancement of the Zni-related emission at ∼414 nm whereas the deep suppression of the interfacial recombination at ∼477 nm should be the main reason for the spectral narrowing effect.