Eu3+ luminescence properties of Eu- and Mg-codoped AlGaN

We investigated the effect of Mg codoping on luminescence properties of AlGaN:Eu to improve emission through synergy effect between an increase in bandgap by AlGaN and the Mg codoping technique. The luminescence properties of AlGaN:(Eu, Mg) are strongly influenced by the Mg concentration and Al composition. Mg codoping in AlGaN was observed to contribute to increasing photoluminescence (PL) integrated intensity and to improve thermal quenching from 7.3% to 60% while the dominant optical site remained site B (622.3-nm peak) with low excitation cross section. The total concentration of optically activated Eu at 25 K was a constant at for either optical site, indicating that Mg codoping did not affect the formation of optical sites. The PL decay times at room temperature (RT) increased with Mg concentration because of suppression of the back-transfer process. For optimized Mg concentration, an increase in the Al composition contributed to the total activated Eu concentration and changed the dominant optical site from A (620.3-nm peak) to B. The activation energy Ea, which is the difference in energy between the 5D0 energy level and the trap level in the host material, was estimated from temperature dependence of PL decay time. The Ea for site A was larger than that for site B, suggesting that the back-transfer rate for site A was less than that for site B.