Luminescence properties of ZnO/Zn1-xCdxO/ZnO double heterostructures

We report on luminescence properties from T=2 K up to room temperature of ZnO/Zn1-xCdxO/ZnO double heterostructures grown by pulsed-laser deposition on a-plane sapphire substrates. Depending on the growth conditions, the spectral position of the Zn1-xCdxO related maximum has been tuned from 3.19 to 3.056 eV, corresponding approximately to Cd contents between 2.1% and 5.6%. Independent of x we observe intense phonon replicas of the photoluminescence (PL) maximum. The quenching of the luminescence intensity indicates the presence of two thermal activation energies, one of them being assigned to the delocalization of excitons from donors. The temperature-dependent PL spectra exhibit the so-called S-shape behavior as function of temperature for the Zn1-xCdxO due to the superposition of the usual S-shape, caused by the alloy, and a change in the peak character from donor-bound exciton to free exciton. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3372715]