Cathodoluminescence properties of Pr, Tm co-implanted GaN thin films

In this work, Pr and Tm co-doped GaN thin films were prepared by ion implantation. After a thermal annealing treatment for the lattice recovery and ions activation, temperature-dependent cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy was applied to investigate the luminescent properties. At room temperature, the intensity ratio of blue emission to infrared emission of Tm ions was decreased as the implantation dose of Pr ions was increased, which is due to the energy transfer between Pr and Tm ions. In addition, the 467 nm blue emission of Tm and the 528 nm green emission of Pr were observed only at low temperature. A model was proposed to illuminate the light emission mechanism of Pr and Tm co-implanted GaN thin films.