Processing and photoluminescence properties of surface crystallized ZnO glass-ceramics

Abstract ZnO surface crystallized glass-ceramics were fabricated using K 2 O-CaO-ZnO-B 2 O 3 -SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 glass system. Precipitation of Zn-containing oxide crystallites was affected by the chemical composition of borate glass, especially the amount of Al 2 O 3 . Substitution of SiO 2 for B 2 O 3 brought selective crystallization of ZnO without precipitation of α-Zn 3 B 2 O 6 . ZnO-precipitated glass-ceramics showed surface crystallization with submicron-sized crystallites, which assured transparency of these glass-ceramics. The obtained glass-ceramic shows free exciton emission, which is similar to emission of ZnO single crystal.