Photoluminescence studies on BCN thin films synthesized by RF magnetron sputtering

• Photoluminescence (PL) was observed in the visible blue/green region at 498 nm and 599 nm.
• For the first time in BCN thin films, Negative thermal quenching (NTQ) was observed.
• XRD studies confirm that BCN films have crystallinity of very short range order.
• FTIR and XPS confirm many phases like h-BCN/h-BN, c-BCN/c-BN, (sp)C-N, (sp2)CN.

Photoluminescence(PL) studies on boron carbon nitride (BCN) thin films deposited at various temperatures were conducted. Two sharp PL peaks in the visible region were identified at 498 nm and 599 nm for the BCN films with variable peak intensities. Low temperature PL study was conducted at 77 K for the films. It was found that, the PL intensity tended to decrease significantly with decrease in the substrate temperature during the measurement. A rare PL phenomenon of negative thermal quenching (NTQ) was observed in BCN thin films.