Enhanced Ultraviolet Random Lasing from Au/MgO/ZnO Heterostructure by Introducing p-Cu2O Hole-Injection Layer

Cen Zhang; Juan Zhang; Weizhen Liu; Haiyang Xu; Shuai Hou; Chunliang Wang; Liu Yang; Zhongqiang Wang; Xinhua Wang; Yichun Liu

doi:10.1021/acsami.6b08955

Enhanced Ultraviolet Random Lasing from Au/MgO/ZnO Heterostructure by Introducing p-Cu₂O Hole-Injection Layer

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Nov 23;8(46):31485-31490. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b08955. Epub 2016 Nov 15.

Authors

Cen Zhang¹, Juan Zhang¹, Weizhen Liu^{1

2}, Haiyang Xu¹, Shuai Hou¹, Chunliang Wang¹, Liu Yang¹, Zhongqiang Wang¹, Xinhua Wang², Yichun Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Advanced Optoelectronic Functional Materials Research and Key Laboratory of UV-Emitting Materials and Technology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University , Changchun 130024, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Changchun 130033, China.

PMID: 27933977
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b08955

Abstract

Ultraviolet light-emitting devices (LEDs) were fabricated on the basis of Au/MgO/ZnO metal/insulator/semiconductor (MIS) heterostructures. By introducing a thermally oxidized p-type Cu₂O hole-injection layer into this MIS structure, enhanced ultraviolet electroluminescence (EL) and random lasing with reduced threshold injection current are achieved. The enhancement mechanism is attributed to effective hole transfer from p-Cu₂O to i-MgO under forward bias, which increases the initial carrier concentration of MgO dielectric layer and further promotes "impact-ionization" effect induced carrier generation and injection. The current study proposes a new and effective route to improve the EL performance of MIS junction LEDs via introducing extrinsic hole suppliers.

Keywords: Au/MgO/ZnO heterostructure; MIS junction; hole-injection layer; p-type Cu2O; ultraviolet random lasing.