Temperature-dependent photoluminescence of ZnTe films grown on Si substrates

ZnTe films have been prepared on Si substrates by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD), and the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) properties were investigated. The near-band-edge (NBE) emission of the ZnTe sample at 83K shows an asymmetry line shape, which can be decomposed into two Gaussian lines labelled by FE and BE. Temperature-dependent PL intensity of the NBE peak shows two variation regions, and an expression with two dissociation channels fits well to the experimental data. The results of the temperature-dependent full width at half maximum (FWHM) and peak energy were well understood under the framework of the two-dissociation-channel model. That is, at low temperature, the emission from bound excitons governs the NBE peak, while above 157 K, the free exciton emission becomes dominant gradually. A simple model with three energy levels was employed to describe the variation in emission intensity of BE and FE with temperature.