IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF-TuP

Paper TF-TuP11
Infrared Emission from Electroluminescent Thin Film ZnS Doped with Rare Earth Fluorides

Tuesday, October 30, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Microstructure, Oxides, and Optical Properties Poster Session
Presenter: W. Glass, University of Florida
Authors: W. Glass, University of Florida
A.S. Kale, University of Florida
R. Owing, University of Florida
M.R. Davidson, University of Florida
P.H. Holloway, University of Florida
Correspondent: Click to Email
Alternating current thin film electroluminescent devices (ACTFELDs) are well-known thin film structures used for flat panel displays. A well-known phosphor for such displays is ZnS doped with either transition or rare earth elements. For example, ZnS:TmF@sub 3@ emits blue light, ZnS:NdF@sub 3@ emits orange, ZnS:DyF@sub 3@ emits yellow, and ZnS:ErF@sub 3@ emits green. Each of these materials also emits in the infrared. The infrared emission from these types of materials is often overlooked except in the case of ErF@sub 3@, which has been of interest for fiber optic communications. The infrared intensity of these materials is dependent on the environment of the luminescent centers and can be improved by modification of deposition and processing. In this study, rare earth fluoride doped ZnS films were deposited by RF planar magnetron sputter deposition or thermal evaporation. Deposition temperature and annealing conditions are varied to determine temperature effects during and after deposition. In addition, the rare earth concentration was changed from a maximum of 1.6 mol% to zero by simultaneously sputtering an undoped ZnS target. The devices were then excited by electroluminescence to determine the effects of the deposition variations. These sputtered devices will be compared to those deposited by evaporation. Finally, emission from materials with similar and dissimilar luminescent decay paths will be discussed.