Photoluminescence studies of ZnO thin films on R-plane sapphire substrates grown by sol–gel method

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films on R-plane sapphire substrates were grown by the sol–gel spin-coating method. The optical properties of the ZnO thin films were investigated using photoluminescence. In the UV range, the asymmetric near-band-edge emission was observed at 300 K, which consisted of two emissions at 3.338 and 3.279 eV. Eight peaks at 3.418, 3.402, 3.360, 3.288, 3.216, 3.145, 3.074, and 3.004 eV, which respectively correspond to the free exciton (FX), bound exciton, transverse optical (TO) phonon replica of FX recombination, and first-order longitudinal optical phonon replica of FX and the TO (1LO+TO), 2LO+TO, 3LO+TO, 4LO+TO, and 5LO+TO, were obtained at 12 K. From the temperature-dependent PL, it was found that the emission peaks at 3.338 and 3.279 eV corresponded to the FX and TO, respectively. The activation energy of the FX and TO emission peaks was found to be about 39.3 and 28.9 meV, respectively. The values of the fitting parameters of Varshniʹs empirical equation were α=4×10−3 eV/K and β=4.9×103 K, and the S factor of the ZnO thin films was 0.658. With increasing temperature, the exciton radiative lifetime of the FX and TO emissions increased. The temperature-dependent variation of the exciton radiative lifetime for the TO emission was slightly higher than that for the FX emission.