Ultrafast carrier dynamics in ZnO epitaxial thin films studied by optical Kerr gate luminescence spectroscopy

Time-resolved luminescence spectra of ZnO epitaxial thin films have been measured by the optical Kerr gate luminescence spectroscopy under resonant excitation of the excitonic state. At moderate excitation density, a luminescence band (P band) which is attributed to an exciton-exciton collision process was observed. With increasing the excitation density, the P band disappears while a new luminescence band (EHP band) due to radiative recombination of electrons with holes in an electron-hole plasma appears. The EHP band has a rise time of similar to 1 ps, and shifts to lower energy with time and then finally shifts to higher energy. The rise time of die EHP band shows a transition time from a high density excitonic state to an unbound electron-hole system due to the screening of Coulomb interaction. The red shift of the EHP band comes from the reduced band-gap effect, while the blue shift of the EHP band is mainly attributed to recovery of the renormalized band-gap, which occurs with decreasing the carrier density due to the radiative recombination of electrons with holes.