Assembly and electroluminescence of sheet-like zinc oxide/silicon light-emitting diode by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique

Sheet-like zinc oxide/silicon ([ZnO]/[Si]) light-emitting diode (LED) has been fabricated through depositing nanoscale ZnO on the p-type single crystal silicon by using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. The (100), (002), and (101) diffraction peaks can be observed. With the increasing sputtering time, however, the intensity of (100) and (101) diffraction peaks has gradually decreased and the intensity of (002) diffraction peak has gradually enhanced. With low sputtering power, the obtained ZnO shows better (002)-orientation growth. Electroluminescence (EL) from [ZnO]/[Si] LED has been decomposed into three emission bands, that is UV, green, and orange emissions, which originate from the bandgap, zinc interstitial, oxygen vacancies, and shallow level. At the low sputtering power, the orange emission disappears. It is indicated that the structures and EL properties are sensitive to the fabrication conditions. It is important to optimize and tune the fabrication condition for purposeful application in future works.