ELECTROLUMINESCENCE OF RARE-EARTH AND TRANSITION METAL MOLECULES IN II-VI COMPOUNDS VIA IMPACT EXCITATION

Abstract

It is shown experimentally that it is possible to excite rare‐earth and transition metal ions included in a II‐VI compound matrix as fluoride molecules by direct, hot‐electron impact. Electron‐hole pairs in the matrix are unnecessary and even undesirable. AC excitation of a thin film structure has given external power conversion efficiency of about 10⁻⁴ at several optical frequencies including the 5480‐Å line of Tb³⁺.