Photoluminescence properties of MgxZn1−xO films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract The optical properties of Mg x Zn 1−x O films with x=0.03, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.11 grown by molecular beam epitaxy ( MBE ) have been studied by temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurement. It is presented that the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the 12 K PL spectrum of MgZnO films increases with increasing Mg concentration and would deviate significantly from the simulation curve of Schubert model with higher Mg contents. The abnormal broader PL FWHM is inferred from larger compositional fluctuation by incorporating higher Mg contents, which results in larger effect of excitonic localization to induce more significant S-shaped behavior of the PL peak energy with temperature dependence. Additionally, the degree of localization increases as the linear proportion of the PL FWHM, indicating that the excitonic behavior in MgZnO films belong to the strong localization effect.