Low-Temperature Facile Synthesis of Sb-Doped p-Type ZnO Nanodisks and Its Application in Homojunction Light-Emitting Diode.

This study explores low-temperature solution-process-based seed-layer-free ZnO p-n homojunction light-emitting diode (LED). In order to obtain p-type ZnO nanodisks (NDs), antimony (Sb) was doped into ZnO by using a facile chemical route at 120 °C. The X-ray photoelectron spectra indicated the presence of (SbZn-2VZn) acceptor complex in the Sb-doped ZnO NDs. Using these NDs as freestanding templates, undoped n-type ZnO nanorods (NRs) were epitaxially grown at 95 °C to form ZnO p-n homojunction. The homojunction with a turn-on voltage of 2.5 V was found to be significantly stable up to 100 s under a constant voltage stress of 5 V. A strong orange-red emission was observed by the naked eye under a forward bias of 5 V. The electroluminescence spectra revealed three major peaks at 400, 612, and 742 nm which were attributed to the transitions from Zni to VBM, from Zni to Oi, and from VO to VBM, respectively. The presence of these deep-level defects was confirmed by the photoluminescence of ZnO NRs. This study paves the way for future applications of ZnO homojunction LEDs using low-temperature and low-cost solution processes with the controlled use of native defects.