Surface excitons on a ZnO (000-1) thin film

摘要

Elementary excitations at the polar (000-1) surface of a 20 nm pseudomorphically grown ZnO thin film are examined by steady state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy at low temperature. We control the density of emission centers through the deposition of prototypical organic molecules with a carboxylic acid anchor group by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Knowledge of the precise film thickness, defect concentrations and number density of deposited molecules leads us to associate the surface exciton emission to defect-related localization centers that are generated through a photochemical process.