Luminescence, recombination and laser damaging of a-CN:OH films grown by reactive sputtering

In this work, porous a-CN thin films (with hydroxyl inclusions) were grown by rf sputtering system and their photoluminescence (PL) properties investigated. In particular, we investigated the stability of the films on irradiation with visible light and discuss possible recombination mechanisms of the electron-hole pairs that are responsible to the PL process. As-grown films are not stable, when light is irradiated above 10 mW on the sample having area of 3 μm2. The material stabilisation up to 50 mW is reached after 12 min of green laser light damaging. The power dependence PL efficiency is discussed in terms of existing recombination models of amorphous semiconductors. C 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.