CHROMATICITY AND ELECTROLUMINESCENT EFFICIENCY OF ATOMIC LAYER EPITAXY SRS:CE THIN FILMS

We have studied various factors that control the luminous properties of atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) SrS:Ce electroluminescent (EL) devices by using electron paramagnetic resonance, photoluminescent decay, x-ray diffraction, and charge-voltage characterization. EL and PL light is green shifted in ALE SrS:Ce films, compared to powders and thin films prepared with some other techniques. The origin of the green shift is discussed. Moderate heat treatments of as-deposited SrS:Ce devices were found to dramatically improve the EL efficiency. This is due to the removal of defects leading to nonradiative Ce3+ decay and to reduction of Ce4+ to radiative Ce3+. Different heat treatments were found to influence the transferred charge, so that there is an optimal heat treatment temperature between 500 and 750 °C. Heat treatments also induce macroscopic stress in these SrS:Ce films. This was seen to induce a local stress around Ce3+ sites. However, the stresses were not found to directly correlate with the luminous effic...