Accepted Manuscript

Role of deposition time on the properties of ZnO:Tb3+ thin films prepared by

pulsed laser deposition

Vinod Kumar, O.M. Ntwaeaborwa, E. Coetsee, H.C. Swart

PII: S0021-9797(16)30250-8
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2016.04.030
Reference: YJCIS 21220

To appear in: Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

Received Date: 7 April 2016

Accepted Date: 20 April 2016

Please cite this article as: V. Kumar, O.M. Ntwaeaborwa, E. Coetsee, H.C. Swart, Role of deposition time on the
properties of ZnO:Tb3+ thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
(2016), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2016.04.030

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 Role of deposition time on the properties of ZnO:Tb3+ thin films prepared

by pulsed laser deposition

Vinod Kumar1,2*, O. M. Ntwaeaborwa1, E. Coetsee1 and H.C. Swart1

1
Department of Physics, University of the Free State, P. O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300,

Republic of South Africa

2
Photovoltaic Laboratory, Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,

New Delhi-110016, India

Abstract

Terbium (Tb3+) doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Tb3+) thin films were grown on silicon (100)

substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique at different deposition times that varied

from 15 to 55 min. The effects of deposition time on the structural and optical properties of

the ZnO:Tb3+ films were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and

photoluminescence spectroscopy. As expected, the thickness of the ZnO:Tb3+ film has

increased with an increase in the deposition time. The photoluminescence intensity of the

band to band emission has also increased with deposition time, while the deep level defect

emission has decreased. The blue emission was observed from all the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films

deposited at the different deposition times excited by 325 nm He-Cd laser, while a green

emission was observed when excited by 228 nm.

Keywords: ZnO:Tb3+, Deposition time, Defects, Blue emission, PLD.

*corresponding Author:

vinod.phy@gmail.com (Vinod Kumar)

1
1. Introduction

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a very attractive material for applications in optical devices such as blue,

violet, green and ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs), since

it has a direct and wide band gap of 3.3 eV at room temperature.[1-5] Furthermore, ZnO has

other advantages such as a high chemical and physical stability, thermal stability in hydrogen

plasma atmosphere, large exciton binding energy of 60 meV, ZnO thin films exhibits very

strong emissions by excitons even at room temperature [6]. ZnO thin films have been

deposited with a number of different techniques such as atom beam sputtering [7], pulse laser

deposition (PLD) [8], RF magnetron sputtering [9] and sol-gel [10]. Among them, the PLD

technique is very unique for the growth of oxide material because the oxygen plasma created

by the pulsed laser is very energetic and its density is easily controllable by the oxygen

pressure. The PLD technique have also many advantages such as transfer of stoichiometry,

the surface of the films is very smooth; good quality films can be deposited at room

temperature due to the high kinetic energies of atoms and ionized species in the laser

produced plasma so that PLD is more preferred to the fabrication process of optoelectronic

devices [11]. The physical properties of the films depend mainly on the process parameters

such as oxygen partial pressure, substrate temperature, thickness and post deposition

annealing. The properties of the thin film are strongly influenced by its thickness. The

particle size, their shapes and distribution are modified with an increase in the number of

layers, which effectively influence particle morphology and the stress in the thin films [12,

13]. The grain distribution and surface roughness influence the optical and electrical

properties of the thin film [12, 13].

Doping of ZnO with selective elements has become an important route for enhancing

and tuning its optical, electrical, and magnetic performance, which is usually crucial for their

practical applications [14]. It is well known that rare earth (RE) ions are better candidates as
2
luminescent centers because their special 4f intra-shell transitions may give rich spectral

lines. However, there have been a few reports on RE-doped semiconductor nanoparticle as it

is difficult to incorporate RE ions effectively in nanocrystals, which is a serious problem for

studies on RE-doped semiconductor. If RE ions are effectively doped in semiconductor

nanocrystals, the optical properties of the nanocrystals are expected to transformed

accordingly with more information. Then RE-doped nanocrystals will constitute a new class

of nano-sized materials for their potential application in optoelectronic devices such as an

ultrathin display device using RE-doped II-VI semiconductor nanoparticle instead of

traditional RE-doped phosphors as emission and electron transfer material. RE ions

incorporated into ZnO nano-particles result in remarkable changes in the optical properties of

ZnO [15, 16]. Of the many RE ions, Tb3+ ion is an important dopant element for the green

emission band [15, 17]. Tb doped ZnO (ZnO:Tb3+) nanoparticle are assumed to be a new type

of green phosphor with interesting photoluminescence (PL) properties [14, 17]. In our

previous work, the optimization and characterization of ZnO:Tb3+ nanophosphors using

different characterization tools was reported [18]. The optimum doping concentration of Tb

in ZnO was observed to be 5 mol% with near white light emission. The reported optimized

nano-powder was used for the preparation of the target of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films using PLD.

The effect of substrate temperature on the PLD grown ZnO:Tb3+ film was reported in our

previous work [19]. In this paper, the effect of deposition time on the structural,

morphological and optical properties of ZnO:Tb3+ thin film is reported. The effect of

thickness on the luminescence properties is also investigated in detailed.

2. Experimental details

ZnO:Tb3+ thin films were deposited on polished (100) silicon (Si) wafers using a

ZnO:Tb3+ target in a reactive PLD process. The optimization and synthesiziation of the
3
ZnO:Tb3+ nanophosphors powder by the solution-combustion method has already been

reported elsewhere [18]. These ZnO:Tb3+ powder was used for the preparation of the target.

The 266 nm Nd:YAG laser was used for the ablation. The Si substrate was cleaned

ultrasonically using acetone, ethanol and deionized water after that it was dried by N2 gas.

The optimized substrate temperature was fixed at 300°C [19] during deposition of the thin

films in a vacuum chamber backfilled with oxygen gas and the laser energy was fixed at 40

mJ. The deposition time was varied from 15 to 55 min to produce films with different

thicknesses. The chamber was first pumped down to a background pressure of 5×10−5 mbar

and was then backfilled with oxygen to a partial pressure of 5×10 -2 mbar.

The structural properties were analyzed with an X-ray diffractometer (XRD)

(PANanalytical X’pert PRO). The surface morphology and roughness of the films were

examined from images captured in the contact mode using a Shimadzu SPM-9600 atomic

force microscope (AFM). The root mean square (RMS) roughness was estimated by

analyzing the topographic scans of the films. A PHI 700 Auger Nanoprobe was used for the

depth profile analyses. A 25 keV, 10 nA electron beam was used. The Auger peak to peak

heights (APPHs) were monitored while sputtering with 2 keV, 2 mA Ar+ ions using a raster

that scanned the Ar+ ion beam over a 2×2 mm2 area and the sputtering rate was 8.5 nm per

minute. The photoluminescence (PL) (excitation and emission) data were recorded using a

Cary Eclipse fluorescence spectrophotometer. PL data were also recorded using a 325 nm

He-Cd laser as excitation source. All characterization was carried out at room temperature.

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Structural and morphological analysis

The XRD patterns of the ZnO:Tb3+ films grown on the Si (100) substrates at different

deposition times are shown in Fig.1. Only one diffraction peak of the ZnO phase was found
4
in the XRD patterns of all the different deposition time grown films. It is worth noting that

the diffraction peak of the ZnO phase was identified as the (002) peak, which indicated that

the ZnO films prepared by reactive PLD show a good c-axis orientation perpendicular to the

substrate [20, 21]. It is clear that the peaks became broader with an increase in the deposition

time. The average crystallite size of the deposited thin films was calculated from the (002)

peak using Scherer’s equation [22] and was found to be decreasing from 19 to 11 nm with an

increase in the deposition time from 15 to 55 min.

55 min
Intensity (a.u.)

45 min

35 min

25 min

15 min

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
2 (deg.)
Fig.1. XRD pattern of ZnO:Tb3+ films at deposited for different deposition times.

The effect of deposition time on the microstructure and surface morphology of the

ZnO:Tb3+ films was studied by AFM. The two-dimension (2D) AFM images of the ZnO:Tb3+

films deposited on the Si substrates deposited at the different deposition times are shown in

Fig.2. As the deposition time was increased, the ZnO:Tb3+ films exhibited elliptical grains

with defined grain boundaries and uniformity. The grain size was observed to increase with

deposition time up to 45 min. The root mean square (RMS) roughness of the thin film has
5
increased from 10 to 47 nm with an increase in the deposition time from 15 to 45 min and

then it decreased to 43 nm. The thinner coating presented a more compact morphology in

comparison with the thickest ones. Normally, during the PLD process, at the early stage of

film growth, new islands are easily formed thereby increasing the island density rapidly [23].

With the increasing island density, the existing islands tend to capture more and more

following the incident particles so that the size of the islands increases quickly. While the

coverage is improved, the creation of new islands becomes difficult and the total number of

islands decreases as a result of the coalescing of existing islands. Consequently, the island

density will level off after the highest point as observed in our films. The islands started to

coalesce for the longer deposition times. It was observed that the increase of coatings

thickness induces the formation of less compact coatings, with well define and separated

islands. It was also identified that the number of an islands increased with the increasing film

thickness.

6
 15 min 25 min

35 min 45 min

55 min

Fig.2. Two dimension AFM images of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films deposited with different

deposition times.

7
3.2. Auger peak to peak heights (APPH) analysis

Figure 3 shows the compositional depth profiles of the thin film layers grown on the

Si (100) substrate deposited at different deposition times. The thickness of the films has

increased with an increase in the deposition time. The fact that the thickness of the ZnO films

increased with deposition time was due to the continued growth of ad-atoms on the Si

substrate. As the deposition time increased, more atoms were ablated from the target material

and these adatoms reach the Si substrate and condense to form a layer of ZnO. The thickness

of the films were determined from the AES depth profiles to be approximately 150, 300, 400,

450 and 500 nm for the films deposited at different deposition times of 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55

min, respectively. This spectroscopy, coupled with ion etching has allowed us to evaluate the

film composition throughout its thickness to examine evidence of compositional variation

during the film deposition. The main elements detected in the ZnO:Tb3+ thin film was zinc

(Zn), oxygen (O) and terbium (Tb). In addition, the adventitious carbon (C) on the surface

and silicon (Si) from the substrate were also detected. The atomic concentrations of Zn and O

were found to be almost constant through the thickness of the samples, which clearly

indicates a homogeneous composition of the film throughout its depth; but a variation of the

adventitious C on the surface was observed. By comparing the depth profiles inter diffusion

of the species at the interface of the film, Si was observed for the longer deposition times at

300°C. It was especially clear for the 55 min deposited thin film. This means that the

diffusion of Si, although in a small amount, may resulted in the occupation of the Si in some

of the Zn vacancy positions, which will lead to a decrease in the defect emission where Si

reduced the Zn vacancy emission due to the Si occupation of the Zn vacancies [19, 24] at the

longer deposition times at 300°C. The co-relationship between film thickness and deposition

time is shown in Fig. 4. The relationship between thickness and deposition time was slightly

smaller than linear regression. This phenomenon has been observed previously and it is
8
suggested to be correlated with a reduction in the amount of target material being vaporized

by the laser beam [25]. Krajnovich et al. [26] have observed that the thickness-increasing

trend stops with prolonged deposition time when periodic structures such as ripples, ridges,

and cones are formed on the target material. The thickness of the films increased

approximately with an exponential growth with the deposition time.

x
y  y0  A1e t1
(1)

Where, y0, A1 and t1 are constant. The value of y0, A1 and t1 was obtained as 566, -812 and -

22 nm, respectively.

9
 100 100
Atomic Concnetartion (at.%) 15 min 25 min

Atomic Concnetartion (at.%)

80 80
C C
O O
60 Zn 60 Zn
Tb Tb
Si Si
40 40

20 20

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Thickness (nm) Thickness (nm)
100 100
35 min 45 min
Atomic Concnetartion (at.%)

80
Atomic Concnetartion (at.%)
80

60 C 60
O C
Zn O
Tb Zn
40 40 Tb
Si
Si

20 20

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800
Thickness (nm) Thickness (nm)
100
55 min
Atomic Concnetartion (at.%)

80

60
C
O
40 Zn
Tb
Si
20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Thickness (nm)

Fig.3. Depth profiles of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films deposited with different deposition times as

indicated.

10
 525

450

Film Thickness (nm)

375

300

225

150

10 20 30 40 50 60
Depostion Time (min)

Fig.4. The relationship between thickness of films and deposition time black squares, the

solid line shows its exponential fit with equation 1.

3.3. Photoluminescence Property

It was found previously from the synthesized and optimized nanophosphor powder that the

intensity of the PL emission from the Tb3+ emission has increased with an increase in the Tb

concentration up to 5 mol%,. Energy was transferred from the excited states of the ZnO host

to the dopant as shown by the fact that the emission intensity of the Tb3+ centres increased

with increasing Tb3+ content at the expense of emission from defect states in the ZnO matrix.

This nano-powder sample was used to prepare the target of ZnO:Tb3+ for preparation the thin

of film for this paper by PLD.

Figure 5 shows the PL excitation spectrum of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin film at different

deposition times, recorded when monitoring the major emission peaks at 380, 416, 437 and

543 nm, all coming from the Tb3+ ions. The excitations peaking at ~228 nm are assigned to

direct excitation of the Tb3+ through the f→d transitions. These transitions are assigned

according to the literature cited [27]. The Hund’s rule is applicable to the excited state of the

11
fed transition, the lowest terminal state of the transition 4f8-4f 7fd, is 9D (4f75d) term, the

transition to which from the 7F (4f8) ground term is spin forbidden, and the transition to the

next lowest term 7D (4f75d) is spin allowed [28]. The predicted positions of Tb3+ spin allowed

transitions and spin forbidden transitions comes out to be 223±5 and 259±6 nm respectively.

In the absence of any crystal field splitting being operative at the measurement temperature,

we could only roughly spot these spectral components in the excitation band of Tb3+ by

visual inspection. The emission spectra of ZnO:Tb3+ thin film at different deposition times

are shown in Fig. 5(b). The well-known 5D4 -7FJ(J=6,5,4,3) transitions of the Tb3+ at 489, 543,

587 and 623 nm were observed, where intense green emission at 543 nm was observed due to

the 5D4-7F5 spin allowed transition [29]. The ZnO:Tb3+ thin film shows sub bands around 455

nm, no other band was observed between 400 to 450 nm, this emissions were attributed to the

transitions of the Tb3+ between the 5D3 and 7FJ=3 levels. Usually, these emission bands are

much more prominent at the lower Tb3+ concentrations. As the concentration is increased, the

emission from these transitions is normally quenched and the spectrum is then dominated

completely by the 5D4-7FJ(J=6,5,4,3) transitions. Therefore at our reported concentration of Tb3+

in the ZnO host, only a partial quenching of the 5D3-7FJ transitions occurred by the cross

relaxation mechanism [30].

       
Tb3 5 D3  Tb3 7 F6  Tb3 5 D4  Tb3 7 F0 (2)

The Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) [18] parameters such as colour

coordinate (x-y) was calculated in order to know the change in the photometric characteristics

of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films deposited at the different deposition times. The CIE chromaticity

diagram was calculated using the colour calculator software for the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films

under 228 nm excitation and is shown in Fig.5(c). It can be seen from the figure that the PL

CIE coordinates (x, y) of (0.309, 0.556) at the deposition time of 45 min ZnO:Tb3+ films are

observed in the green region and this films can be used for green emission applications.
12
 5 7
D4- F5 exc= 228 nm
(a) emi= 545 nm (b)

Intensity (a.u.)
Intensity (a.u.)
1
4f - 4f 5d

15 min
8

25 min
15 min 35 min
8

D 4- F6
25 min 45 min

7
35 min 55 min

5
45 min

D 4- F4

D 4- F3
55 min

7
D 3- F3

7
7

5
5
250 300 350 400 400 500 600 700 800
Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)

(c)

Fig.5. PL excitation spectra of the ZnO:Tb3+ film measured at 543 nm emission for the

different deposition times, (b) emission spectra of ZnO:Tb3+ thin film measured at 228 nm

excitation and (c) the CIE diagram of the ZnO:Tb3 at different deposition times.

Fig. 6(a) shows the PL spectra of ZnO:Tb3+ thin films grown at different deposition

times, excited by the He-Cd laser source with the wavelength of 325 nm. According to the

emission spectra, the emission was observed due to ZnO emission and Tb3+ emission. It is

found that the ZnO emission is due to near band to band emission (BBE) UV and deep level

emission (DLE) [31]. The UV emission in ZnO is known to be due to the direct

recombination of excitons and it is related to the crystalline quality of the films. The intensity

13
of BBE has increased with an increase in the deposition time due to an improving in the

crystalline quality of the ZnO film. The DLE has decreased with an increase in the deposition

time. Normally, ZnO has six kinds of defects such as; oxygen vacancies (Vo), oxygen

interstitials (Oi), oxygen antisites (ZnO), zinc vacancies (Vzn), zinc interstitials (Zni) and zinc

antisites (OZn) [32]. The intensities of different kind of defect is attributed to different kind of

colour emission from ZnO [31, 32]. In ZnO:Tb3+ film, the BBE and DLE with a major green

emission peak at 543 nm and a few minor peaks at 455, 489, 586 and 622 nm from the Tb3+

ions. These peaks represent the 5D4-7F5, 5D4-7F6, 5D4-7F4, 5D4-7F3, 5D3-7F4 and 5D3-7F5

transitions of Tb3+, respectively [33, 34]. The defect related emission has decreased with an

increase in the deposition time. The de-convoluted curve of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin film at 15 min

deposition time is shown in Fig.6(b). The de-convoluted peak was correlated to ZnO

emission and Tb3+ emission. The peak at 378 nm was correlated to band to band emission in

ZnO, while the peaks at 415, 448 and 517 nm were attributed to different kind of defects

related emission. In the Tb3+ related emission, the electric dipole (ED) transitions between the

4f states in the free Tb ions are parity forbidden, while the ED transitions are partially

allowed with a weak intensity, when Tb ions occupy lattice or interstitial sites in condensed

matter such as ZnO, which has a large absorption transition probabilities due to the direct

band gap [35]. So most excited carriers trapped at Tb centers come from band gap absorption

in the ZnO matrix and a small part result from the 4f-4f absorption transitions in the Tb3+ ions

[36]. To show more detail about the emission of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films a proposed

schematic band diagram is shown in Fig.6(c). A band gap value of 3.27 eV was obtained

from the BBE peak. The position of the Zni level is theoretically located at 0.22 eV below the

conduction band [37]. A large amount of carriers are excited from the valence band to the

conduction band (3.26 to 3.28 eV, its means 380 to 378 nm), when excited by the He-Cd

laser with the excitation wavelength of 325 nm. A hole in the VB and an electron in the CB
14
can radiatively recombine to give UV emission, which is generally assigned to band edge

emission (~378 nm) from ZnO [38, 39]. The green emission at ~517 nm is attributed to the

recombination of valance band to Vo, while the blue emission is attributed to zinc related

defect (Vzn and Zni). In our previous reported work of undoped ZnO thin films prepared by

PLD, a strong UV emission was observed due to band to band emission with very little defect

emission. The doping of Tb in this case has created a lot of defects in the ZnO system due to

the large radius difference of the Tb3+ (92 pm) with respect to the Zn2+ (74 pm) but the defect

were less with an increase in the deposition time or thickness of film. As pointed out above a

less intense DLE emission between 415 to 420 nm is expected due to the inter diffusion of Si

into the Zn vacancies in ZnO, which is expected to decrease the emission with longer

deposition times. The CIE chromaticity diagram was calculated using the colour calculator

software for the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films under 325 nm excitation and is displayed in Fig.6(d) and

the CIE coordinates (x, y) of (0.231, 0.2717) for 45 min deposition time thin films was in the

blue region for blue emitting application.

15
 (a) (b) 15 min
Band to band emission

Intensity (a.u.)
Intensity (a.u.)

415 nm
378 nm
defect related emission 15 min

448 nm
25 min

D 4- F5
35 min

7
45 min

517 nm
D 4- F6
55 min
5
7
5

D 4- F4

D 4- F2
7

7
5

5
400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700
Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)
Conduction Band (c) 5D
3
(d)
Non-radiative relaxation
5D
Zni ~ 0.22 eV 4
~ 517 nm
3.27 eV

~ 378 nm

400-450 nm

7F
3

7F
4
VO~ 2.47 eV
7F
VZn~ 3.06 eV 5

7F
6
Tb3+ energy level
Valence Band

Fig.6 (a) PL emission of ZnO:Tb3+ thin films deposited at different deposition time and

excited by a 325 nm He-Cd laser (b) de-convoluted curve of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films for the

15 min deposition time sample (c) band diagram of the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films with the different

possible emission transitions and (d) the CIE diagram of ZnO:Tb3+ thin films deposited at the

different deposition times excited by a 325 nm He-Cd laser.

4. CONCLUSION

ZnO:Tb3+ thin films on Si (100) substrates were deposited for different deposition times

using the pulse laser deposition technique. The effect of deposition time on the structural and

luminescence properties of the films was studied. The thickness of the films has increased
16
from 150 to 500 nm with an increase in the deposition time from 15 to 55 min. The band to

band and deep level defect emission were observed for the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films for all the

samples. The defect related emission has decreased with an increase in the deposition time,

while the band to band emission has increased continuously with increasing deposition time.

A blue emission was observed for all the ZnO:Tb3+ thin films deposited at the different

deposition times excited by 325 nm, while a green emission was observed when excited by

228 nm.

Acknowledgment

This work is based on the research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative

of the Department of Science and Technology, Republic of South Africa (84415), and the

National Research Foundation of South Africa. The authors want to thank to the National

Laser Centre, CSIR, Pretoria for providing the pulsed laser deposition technique. One of the

authors (VK) is thankful to DST, New Delhi, India for support through DST-Inspire faculty

award.

17
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 Graphical Abstract

(a) (b) 15 min

Band to band emission

Intensity (a.u.)
Intensity (a.u.)

415 nm
378 nm
defect related emission 15 min

448 nm
25 min

D 4- F5
35 min
7 45 min

517 nm
D 4- F6

55 min
5
7
5

D 4- F4

D 4- F2
7

7
5

400 500 600 700 400 500 600 700

Wavelength (nm) Wavelength (nm)
Conduction Band (c) 5D
3
(d)
Non-radiative relaxation
5D
Zni ~ 0.22 eV 4
~ 517 nm
3.27 eV

~ 378 nm

400-450 nm

7F
3

7F
4
VO~ 2.47 eV
7F
VZn~ 3.06 eV 5

7F
6
Tb3+ energy level
Valence Band

21