Kim, Nam-Oh;Kim, Hyung-Gon;Bang, Tae-Hwan;Hyun, Seung-Cheol;Kim, Duck-Tae
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$ZnIn_2S_4$ and $ZnGaInS_4:Er^{3+}$ single crystals crystallized in the rhombohedral (hexagonal) space group $C_{3v}^5(R3m)$, with lattice constants $a=3.852{\AA},\;c=37.215{\AA}$ for $ZnIn_2S_4$, and $a=3.823{\AA}$, and $c=35.975{\AA}$ for $ZnIn_2S_4:Er^{3+}$. The optical absorption measured near the fundamental band edge showed that the optical energy band structure of there compounds had a direct and indirect band gap, the direct and indirect energy gaps are found to be 2.778 and 2.682 eV for $ZnIn_2S_4$, and 2.725 and 2.651eV for $ZnIn_2S_4:Er^{3+}$ at 293 K. The photoluminescence spectra of $ZnIn_2S_4:Er^{3+}$ measured in the wavelength ranges of $500nm{\sim}900nm$ at 10 K. Eight sharp emission peaks due to $Er^{3+}$ ion are observed in the regions of $549.5{\sim}550.0nm,\;661.3{\sim}676.5nm$, and $811.1{\sim}834.1nm$, and $1528.2{\sim}1556.0nm$ in $CdGaInS_4:Er^{3+}$ single crystal. These PL peaks were attributed to the radiative transitions between the split electron energy levels of the $Er^{3+}$ ions occupied at $C_{2v}$, symmetry of the $ZnIn_2S_4$ single crystals host lattice.