Exciton emission from forward-biased zinc selenide Schottky diodes

Exciton emission has been observed in the forward-biased electroluminesence of ZnSe Schottky diodes free of intentionally added luminescent centres. The emission has been studied from ≈ 95° K to room temperature and is attributed to the recombination of free excitons (zero-LO phonon line). No LO phonon side bands were observed. As with exciton photoluminescence in CdS the half-width of the emission line, although a linear function of temperature, is greater than that predicted by theory. At temperatures below ≈150°K pair emission was also observed.