Mn-doped Zn₂SiO₄ thin film with green fluorescence enhanced by Ag nano island surface plasmon effect

20-100nm thin films of silver were first deposited on quartz glass by magnetron sputtering. These specimens were then annealed at 500 °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 °C for 2 h. By X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the annealed samples were identified as Mndoped Zn₂SiO₄ crystals. Furthermore, photoluminescence (PL) measurement showed the 530nm (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: 100nm Ag (-0:33%), 50nm Ag (-0:02%), 20nm Ag (87.4%), 40nm Ag (124.3%), and 30nm 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.