Intrinsic excitonic photoluminescence and band-gap engineering of wide-gap p-type oxychalcogenide epitaxial films of LnCuOCh (Ln=La, Pr, and Nd; Ch=S or Se) semiconductor alloys

Abstract
The optical spectroscopicproperties of layered oxychalcogenide semiconductors LnCuOCh ( Ln = La , Pr, and Nd; Ch = S or Se) on epitaxialfilms were thoroughly investigated near the fundamental energy band edges. Free exciton emissions were observed for all the films between 300 and ∼30 K . In addition, a sharp emission line, which was attributed to bound excitons, appeared below ∼80 K . The free exciton energy showed a nonmonotonic relationship with lattice constant and was dependent on lanthanide and chalcogen ion substitutions. These results imply that the exciton was confined to the ( Cu 2 Ch 2 ) 2− layer. Anionic and cationic substitutions tune the emission energy at 300 K from 3.21 to 2.89 eV and provide a way to engineer the electronic structure in light-emitting devices.