Sb-doped ZnO nanobelts with single-side zigzag boundaries were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition with an Au catalyst. Transmission electron microscopy shows the existence of two types of periodic planar defects in each nanobelt, which are located on the (0001) and (022 j 1) planes, respectively. The growth of the nanobelts is suggested to be controlled by both the two planar defects. Raman scattering analysis shows that the Sb doping in ZnO depresses the Raman A 1T mode of ZnO and induces the appearance of the additional peak at 761 cm -1 . The near band edge emission peak in photoluminescence spectra has red-shifted as well as broadened seriously due to the heavy doping of Sb.

We report the fabrication of the high-quality Sb-doped ZnO nanobelts by using a simple chemical vapor deposition method. The nanobelts consist of single-crystalline wurtzite ZnO crystal and grow along [011¯2] direction. An electromechanical system is constructed to explore the transverse electrical properties of a single nanobelt under the different applied loading forces. The I-V results indicate that a little barrier exists in between the nanobelt and the atomic force microscopy tip. An almost linear relationship between the force and the resistance was found at small deformation regions, which demonstrates that the nanobelts have potential applications as force/pressure sensor for measuring the nano-Newton forces.

High intensity electron emission cathodes based on a well-aligned ZnO nanorod array were fabricated. An investigation of the properties of the plasma and the electron beams produced by ZnO nanorod array cathodes was presented. Intense current electron beams were obtained from the cathodes. At an electric field of 7–8V∕μm and pulse duration of ∼100ns, the highest emission current density reached 76–91A∕cm2. The production mechanism of the electron beams was the plasma-induced emission. The morphology and structure of the ZnO nanorod after the application of the accelerating pulses were characterized. The plasma expanded at a velocity of about 10.7cm∕μs during the pulse interval. Whether the emission currents are high or low, the plasma on the cathode surface were always distributed uniformly. The ZnO nanorod array cathodes are expected to be applied to high power vacuum electronic devices as electron beam sources.

Ultraviolet (UV) communication is a promising security optical wireless communication technology, and self‐powered photodetectors as their optical receivers offer formidable evolution opportunities. However, insufficient light harvesting and carrier separation of self‐powered photodetectors hinder them from achieving high‐efficiency UV communication. Herein, a multi‐effect coupling strategy is proposed to design an enhanced self‐powered Ag NPs@ZnO nanowires/PEDOT:PSS (AZP) UV photodetector. Taking full advantage of the plasmonic and pyro‐phototronic coupling effect, the endogenous synergistic enhancement of UV light utilization and charge separation efficiency is realized without external field. The responsivity and detectivity of the AZP photodetector are significantly increased more than two and three times respectively, and the response time is less than 0.1 ms. Furthermore, a UV communication system is integrated based on the self‐powered AZP photodetector that conducts synchronous, accurate, and rapid wireless data transmission. Notably, the integrated UV communication system presenting large communication bandwidth with 4800 baud exhibits desirable efficient information transmission potential. This work provides design strategies for the advanced self‐powered UV photodetector toward future energy‐saving and high‐efficiency optical wireless communication.

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