Current injection emission from a transparent p–n junction composed of p-SrCu2O2/n-ZnO

Abstract

An ultraviolet light-emitting diode (LED) operating at room temperature was realized using a $\mathrm{p–n}$ heterojunction composed of transparent conductive oxides, $\mathrm{p-}{\mathrm{SrCu}}_{\mathrm{2}}{\mathrm{O}}_{\mathrm{2}}$ and $\mathrm{n-}\mathrm{ZnO}.$ Multilayered films prepared by a pulsed-laser deposition technique were processed by conventional photolithography with the aid of reactive ion etching to fabricate the LED device. A rather sharp emission band centered at 382 nm was generated when a forward bias voltage exceeding the turn-on voltage of 3 V was applied to the junction. The emission may be attributed to a transition associated with the electron–hole plasma of ZnO.