Effect of growth temperature on morphology, structure and luminescence of Tb-doped BN thin films

This paper investigates the effect of growth temperature on morphology, structure and photoluminescence (PL) of Tb-doped boron nitride (BN) films grown by magnetron sputtering, and the relationships of growth-temperature-structure-PL by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and PL. The characteristic emission lines of the Tb³⁺ were observed in the PL spectra at room temperature. The 473-K-grown film is mainly consisted of amorphous BN particles. With the growth temperature increasing up to 1273 K, the amount of amorphous BN decreases, while the amount of turbostratic BN increases. Correspondingly, the PL intensities from the Tb³⁺ ions increase with the increase of temperature in the range of 473--1273 K.