Mn-Doped Zn2SiO4 Thin Film with Green Fluorescence Enhanced by Ag Nano Island Surface Plasmon Effect

20-100 nm thin films of silver were first deposited on quartz glass by magnetron sputtering. These specimens were then annealed at 500 degrees C for 15 min by rapid thermal annealing (RTA), which might change the silver films into having a morphology of nano islands. Subsequently, a thin film of Mn-doped ZnO was deposited on the above specimens in a sputtering system. These specimens were removed from the sputtering system and annealed again in an atmospheric furnace at 1200 degrees C for 2h. By X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the annealed samples were identified as Mn-doped Zn2SiO4 crystals. Furthermore, photoluminescence (PL) measurement showed the 530 nm (green light) fluorescence. The silver nano islands embedded in the Mn-doped Zn2SiO4 crystals tended to show an increase in PL intensity in the following order and in increase rate composed with their pristine Mn-doped Zn2SiO4 counterpart: 100 nm Ag (-0.33%), 50 nm Ag (-0.02%), 20 nm Ag (87.4%), 40 nm Ag (124.3%), and 30 nm Ag (168.5%). Accordingly, the plasmon effect may lead to the enhancement of fluorescence, and the size of silver nano islands determines the increase rate. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics