Scanning cathodoluminescence as a probe of surface recombination in phosphors excited at low electron energies

Journal Article · Wed Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1997 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.366809· OSTI ID:565668

Seager, C H; Missert, N A; Tallant, D R; Warren, W L ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

Scanning cathodoluminescence (SCL) is a technique that has been widely used to categorize local minority carrier lifetime nonuniformities in bulk and thin film semiconductors. In the case of phosphor powders it has been less popular, partly because the collection and scattering of light generated in an array of particles complicates the extraction of quantitative information about light generation efficiency. Here we demonstrate that by coupling SCL with modern digital imaging manipulation techniques, we can extract quantitative information about the beam energy dependence of phosphor cathodoluminescence with high spatial resolution. A number of common phosphors are examined and a wide range of behavior is observed. We find that materials like ZnS:Ag and SrGa{sub 2}S{sub 4}:Eu display uniformly high nonradiative surface energy losses, while other materials like ZnO:Zn have surface losses which are spatially very nonuniform.

• OSTI ID: 565668
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 83; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
66 PHYSICS
CARRIER LIFETIME
CATHODOLUMINESCENCE
EUROPIUM
GALLIUM SULFIDES
IMAGES
PHOSPHORS
POWDERS
PROBES
RECOMBINATION
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SILVER
STRONTIUM COMPOUNDS
STRONTIUM SULFIDES
ZINC
ZINC COMPOUNDS
ZINC OXIDES
ZINC SULFIDES