Optical properties of ZnO thin films grown on diamond-like carbon by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO/diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and the room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) is investigated. Using a fluorescence spectrophotometer, we obtain the PL spectra of DLC/Si and ZnO/Si thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures. The ZnO/DLC thin films show a broadband emission almost containing the entire visible spectrum. The Gaussian fitting curves of PL spectra reveal that the visible emission of ZnO/DLC thin films consists of three peaks centered at 381 nm, 526 nm and 682 nm, which are attributed to the radiative recombination of ZnO and DLC, respectively. The Commission International de l’Eclairage (CIE) 1931 (x, y) chromaticity space of ZnO/DLC thin films indicates that the visible PL spectrum is very close to the standard white-light region.