Green emission from ZnO-MgO nanocomposite due to Mg diffusion at the interface

The origin and electronic transitions responsible for green emission observed from ZnO-MgO nanocomposite are investigated. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of ZnO-MgO nanocomposite annealed at 600 °C showed only a sharp and intense UV emission peak centered at 396 nm. As the annealing temperature increased from 600 °C to 1000 °C, the green emission positioned at 503 nm is emerged and its intensity enhanced gradually and reached maximum value at 900 °C and then decreased at 1000 °C. It is observed that both UV and green emission intensities are enhanced with variation of atomic ratio (Zn/Mg=1.52, 0.50, 0.30, 0.21, 0.15). Our experiments confirmed that the enhancement of green emission intensity is due to the formation of oxygen vacancies (Vo) due to Mg doping at the interface of ZnO and MgO. This experimental observation is in good agreement with the recent theoretical predictions which states that Mg doping in ZnO lowers the formation energies of oxygen vacancies (Vo) and zinc interstitials (Zni) significantly. PL excitation and emission spectra analysis reveals that excited state for both UV and green emissions is same and lies 0.24 eV below the conduction band of ZnO. Hence, the green emission is attributed to the transition of an electron form the shallow donor (defect level of Zni) to the deep acceptor (defect level of Vo).