Abstract

A comparison of the d.c. electroluminescence properties of reverse biased Schottky diodes in ZnS and ZnSe permits a valuable insight into the electronic processes responsible for the production of electroluminescence emission in rare-earth doped samples of these compounds. For unimplanted ZnS, application of an electric field does not result in any inter-conduction band transitions, whereas unimplanted ZnSe does exhibit transitions of this type even at room temperature. The ZnS and ZnSe Schottky diodes were prepared under similar conditions and would be expected to have similar diode properties, but these results indicate that a direct injection of the tunnelling electron into the upper conduction band is possible in ZnSe but not in ZnS.

© 1984 Optical Society of America