Optical properties of boron hydride BHx

Cite as: Journal of Applied Physics 50, 6018 (1979); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.326676

Published Online: 24 July 2008

J. I. Pankove and W. V. Hough

Journal of Applied Physics 50, 6018 (1979); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.326676 50, 6018

© 1979 American Institute of Physics.

Optical properties of boron hydride BHx
J.I. Pankove
RCA Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
W.V. Hough a)
Callery Chemical Co., Callery, Pennsylvania 16024

(Received 18 December 1978; accepted for publication 17 April 1979)

Boron hydride emits a broad band of yellow light at 2.1 eV when excited optically. The emission is
nearly temperature independent from 78 to 300 o K. An external power efficiency of 5 X 10 ) is
obtained. The luminescence exhibits fatigue at room temperature. An absorption edge is found
above 1.2 eV.
PACS numbers: 78.20. - e, 78.55. - m, 72.80. - r

Boron hydride BHx was prepared by the pyrolysis of It was noted that the photoluminescence decays in time
diborane at 300--600 °C onto a variety of substrates. The de- (fatigue), especially at the higher temperatures. This decay
posit consists of a compact powdery yellowish coating which made the temperature dependence of photoluminescence
flakes readily from the substrate. somewhat difficult to establish. Nevertheless, by measuring
When BHx is exposed to uv light, a bright yellow flu- the luminescence for a short time at various temperatures, or
orescence is obtained. However, no luminescence could be by moving to fresh positions, the emission was found to be
observed from the application of an electric field (electrolu- independent of temperature up to about 200 OK and then to
minescence) nor from bombardment with a 20-kV electron drop by less than a factor of 2 at room temperature.
beam (cathodoluminescence). The photoluminescence spec- A study of the time dependence of the fatigue process
trum was measured at 79 OK and at room temperature. A shows that the decay is neither exponential nor a power law,
HeCd laser emitting 5 mW at 325 nm and an Ar laser emit- but rather tends to be logarithmic, as shown in Fig. 2.
ting up to 150 m W at 488 nm were used to excite the lumines- In order to determine the absorption edge ofBHx ' a thin
cence, yielding nearly identical spectra. The detector was a film of the material was needed. We noted that the powdery
RCA 31025 photomultiplier. A typical spectrum is shown in film was hygroscopic and that the deliquescent sample ex-
Fig. I. The emission peaks at 2.1 eV and has a width of 0.8 eV hibited the same fluorescence as the solid. Even an aqueous
FWHM. No emission could be detected below 1.3 eV, even solution ofBH x fluoresces like the solid (Fig. I). We then
with a cooled PbS detector. The photoluminescence intensi- deposited layers of BHx by spreading a solution of BHx in
ty is proportional to the excitation intensity at least up to 150 methanol on a Pyrex slide and then evaporating the solvent.
m W. An external power efficiency of 5 X 10 - 3 was By repeating this process several times, nearly uniform lay-
obtained. ers ofBHx could be built up for transmission measurements.
The data obtained with samples of three different thick-
nesses are shown in Fig. 3.
The absorption data reveals an exponential edge which
/ "-
\ increases with a slope of 1.26 eV [i.e., the absorption coeffi-
/
<J)
80 K / \297 K cient is proportional to exp(hvl1.26)]. Using the data ob-
I- I \
Z
=>
I
\ tained with the thickest sample (8.6 Jim), we first subtracted
I
t:::: / \ a constant residual low-energy background (probably scat-
co I
c:: \

,
<[ / \
>- \
l-
v; r-----; ;, 1 "'-'-1-' -T-r~T'l--~--···T·;;·T '-~-r~;l
Z
w \
I-
Z \
\ lor .
" .~
~60 -
~
>-
0;
'"".
3.0
~40

~20~
'2 i
'"
'"'''''' -j
I~~~ __ ~~~
FIG. 1. Photoluminescence spectra of BHx at SO and 297 OK. The lower ~ I
curve shows the luminescence ofBHx dissolved in water. All these spectra OL. "I I
0.1 1.0 10 100
were obtained with uV excitation. A broad background of scattered inci- TIME 1m,,)
dent light distorts the lowest curve.
FIG. 2. Time dependence ofluminescence fatigue at 297 OK. Excitation: 25
a)Deceased. mW at 488 nm incident on -2 mm'.

6018 J. Appl. Phys. 50(9), September 1979 0021-8979/79/096018-02$01_10 © 1979 American Institute of Physics 6018
 tering); then, the remainder was plotted as the square root of
exp (hv/1.26) the (optical density)(hv) product versus the photon energy,
THICKNESS
o 4.81'm hv. This type of plot, shown at the bottom of Fig. 3, is used to
• 8.61'm determine the energy gap of an amorphous material, which
l}UNDETERMINED al10ws optical transistions between parabolic distributions of
states without momentum restrictions (e.g., as in amorphous
silicon, a-Si : H). I An energy gap of 1.2 e V was obtained with
a steeper rise at 3.0 eV.
Since we were not able to observe cathodolumines-
cence, we can exclude pair generation as the excitation
mechanism and therefore we can exclude pair recombina-
tion as the luminescence process. This observation suggests a
localized transition with a large Stokes shift.
We are grateful to J.E. Berkeyheiser for technical
assistance.

3 .

~2- 'P.I. Zanzucchi, C.R. Wronski and D.E. Carlson, 1. AppJ. Phys. 48, 5227
(1977).

FIG. 3. Absorption spectrum of BHx layers of different thicknesses (at

297 OK). The lower portion shows a plot of [(optical density)(hv)J'I2. The
data for the film of undetermined thickness was fitted to the data of the
other two layers at 3.0 e V.

6019 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 50, No.9, September 1979 Communications 6019