Photoluminescence and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Revealing Visible Emission of ZnO Quantum Dots

Abstract

Both PL and EPR are simultaneously adopted to systematically elucidate the defect centers of green luminescence (GL) as well as the EPR peak g = 1.96 of ZnO and the relationship between them. The PL of ZnO QDs reveals that GL of 2.21–2.31 eV disappears at excitation wavelengths > 400 nm. This is related to the electronic transition from conduction band (CB), or shallow donor defect centers, to deep defects of VZn-H complexes at ≈0.9 eV above the valence band (VB). The EPR peak g = 1.96 emerged only when irradiated with light shorter than 400 nm, which is explicitly correlated with the electrons trapped in the CB or the shallow donors participating in the GL. A spin-spin relaxation time (T2) estimated from the peak-to-peak line width ΔHpp in the EPR signal is ≈17.5–52.5 ns, which is two orders of magnitude longer than known values for bulk or thin-film ZnO.