Surface nanosheets evolution and enhanced photoluminescence properties of Al-doped ZnO films induced by excessive doping concentration

Abstract Previous reports found Al-doped ZnO nanosheets were formed at a certain preparation condition, but the formation mechanism was vague. In this work, we prepare sol-gel Al-doped ZnO films, and find that films show the obvious nanorods structure on surface of pure ZnO, but the nanorods changes to nanosheets gradually with rising doping concentration. The formation mechanism of nanosheets is clarified, and the doping concentration dependence of morphology is discussed in this paper. In addition, the photoluminescence spectra of all films appear a series of emissions including the near band edge emission (NBE) at 388 nm and several defect emissions (DE) at 396–499 nm. Previous reports proposed that NBE and DE would rise monotonously or decline monotonously with doping. However, this work reveals that the NBE decreases firstly in the range of low doping concentrations and then improves upon excessive doping concentration, due to crystalline quality and optical energy gap --- this reason is different from traditional explanations. Also, DE at different positions show the different variation trends, without the same increase or the same decrease. At excessive doping concentration, both NBE and DE enhance, illustrating the potential application for the enhanced ultraviolet and white light emitting devices.