Luminescent properties of ZnO thin films treated by pulse-modulated high-power inductively coupled plasma

Abstract The effect of hydrogen plasma irradiation on luminescence properties of ZnO thin films was studied by using a pulse-modulated inductively coupled plasma technique. H-plasma exposure distance was changed to investigate the effect of hydrogen plasma irradiation on luminescent properties. Room temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) spectrum shows that hydrogen plasma irradiation can increase the efficiency of UV emission at 3.27 eV, and the improvement is strongly dependent on H-plasma exposure distance. For low temperature CL spectra, the intensity of donor–acceptor pair (DAP) transition at 3.315 eV has been increased more rapidly after hydrogen plasma irradiation, leading DAP to be the dominant transition.