Temperature-dependent photoluminescence properties of ZnO/Zn1−xMgxO multilayers grown by pulsed laser deposition

► ZnO/ZnMgO multilayers were grown at varying substrate temperatures by PLD technique. ► Band gap at 10 K increases with rise of substrate temperature. ► Above 25 K, band gap decreases with rise of substrate temperature from 500 °C to 700 °C. ► Increase of substrate temperature changes the recombination from donor-bound to localized excitons. ► Nonradiative recombination centers play an important role in the PL emission.