Luminescent properties: bandgap

B OPTICAL BANDGAP AND LUMINESCENCE PROPERTIES OF AlGaN IN THE EXCITONIC REGION... 

A survey of the optical bandgap, excitonic recombination properties under low excitation and electron hole plasma recombination in AlxGai.xN has been given. Demand for UV applications, i.e. gas sensors or monitors, flare sensors, medical applications, chemical and biochemical applications and light sources for phosphors increases rapidly, which will surely lead to the further improvement of the quality of the AIN containing nitrides, and thus give us much more information about their luminescence properties. 

The luminescence properties of nanoscale diamond have as well been subject to extensive study. For nanoscopic particles, as compared to the respective bulk material, deviating characteristics are generally expected due to the large portion of surface atoms and a potentially distorted band structure. Yet for diamond, the bandgap is unaffected by particle dimensions (at least in the relevant range), and the luminescence of the nanomaterial has many features in common with that of the bulk phase. 

Defects and impurities, in general, play a comparably important role for the luminescence properties of nanodiamond like they do for the bulk material. Owing to their existence, there are electronic states situated within the bandgap, which allow for inducing luminescence in nanodiamond samples also with longer wave radiation. Upon excitation with wavelengths between 300 and 365 nm, fluorescence bands are observed at more than 400 nm. They arise from various nitrogen defects. In comparison to bulk diamond, the Ufetime of the excited states is rather short, which possibly is due to the effect of surface states and to the increased density of excitons on the surface. 

One of the most fascinating features of this class of semiconductor clusters is the size dependence of the HOMO-LUMO bandgap which is distinguishable in their luminescence properties. For instance, it has been shown that by adjusting the particle size of colloidal... 

The surface-state model, in which the luminescent recombination occurs via surface states, was proposed to explain certain properties of the PL from PS, for example long decay times or sensitivity of the PL on chemical environment. In the frame of this model the long decay times are a consequence of trapping of free carriers in localized states a few hundred meV below the bandgap of the confined crystallite. The sensitivity of the PL to the chemical environment is interpreted as formation of a trap or change of a trap level by a molecule bonding to the surface of a PS crystallite. The surface-state model suffers from the fact that most known traps, e.g. the Pb center, quench the PL [Me9], while the kinds of surface state proposed to cause the PL could not be identified. 

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