Room-temperature near-band-edge photoluminescence of ZnO is composed of contributions from free-exciton recombination and its longitudinal-optical phonon replica. By tracking the photoluminescence of ZnO nanowires from 4K up to room temperature, the authors show that the relative contributions of these emission lines show a strong variation for samples grown under different conditions. The varying coupling strengths of the excitons and phonons thus lead to a significant shift of the energy position of the room-temperature photoluminescence. They verify that this is not caused by laser heating or stress/strain but is most probably related to crystalline imperfections in the surface region.
Conventional fiber optic evanescent-field gas sensors are based on a high number of total reflections while the gas is passing the active bare core fiber and of course a suitable laser light source. The use of miniaturized laser sources for sensitive detection of CO(2) in gaseous and water-dissolved phase for environmental monitoring are studied for signal enhancing purposes. Additionally, the fiber optic sensor, consisting of a coiled bare multimode fiber core, was sensitized by an active polymer coating for the detection of explosive TNT. The implementation of ZnO waveguiding nanowires is discussed for surface and sensitivity enhancing coating of waveguiding elements, considering computational and experimental results.
The optical properties of single ZnO nanowires with diameters < 200 nm are analyzed. A comparison of the photoluminescence properties of the as-grown ensemble and of an individual nanowire is given. The temperature dependence of the individual nanowire photoluminescence shows the same behavior as that of bulk material due to the wire diameter being very large compared to the exciton Bohr radius of ZnO. Furthermore, high excitation-density measurements performed on an individual nanowire are presented in which a sharp line is observed resulting from resonator effects inside the wire.
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