Emission-tunable Mn-doped ZnS/ZnO heterostructure nanobelts for UV-pump WLEDs

Abstract The development of emission-tunable structures opens an optimistic future for white light-emitting diodes (WLED) utilizing a UV pump. Herein, we report emission-tunable Mn-doped ZnS/ZnO heterostructure nanobelts synthesized by the thermal evaporation method, following by an appropriate oxidation process. Under the UV excitation of 330 nm, the as-received nanobelts show an orange-yellow light with CCT of 3056 K, the 500 and 700 °C-oxidized samples strongly exhibit a warm white light emission with CCT of 3393 K and 3551 K, respectively. Surprisingly, the Mn-doped ZnS/ZnO heterostructures oxidized at 600 °C show a white light emission with CIE chromaticity coordinate of (0.31, 0.39) and CCT value of 6290 K, which are nearly very close to that of the commercial YAG:Ce3+ phosphor. A prototype WLED with the color coordinates of (0.33, 0.45), the CCT of 5491 K, and the QE ∼ 61% was successfully fabricated using Mn-doped ZnS/ZnO heterostructure nanobelts coated on the surface of UV (370 nm) chip. The obtained Mn-doped ZnS/ZnO heterostructures are promising to be applied in UV-pumped WLED fabrication.