Huichao Zhu

Electrical and Photoresponse Properties of an Intramolecular p-n Homojunction in Single Phosphorus-Doped ZnO Nanowires

The single-crystal n-type and p-type ZnO nanowires (NWs) were synthesized via a chemical vapor deposition method, where phosphorus pentoxide was used as the dopant source. The electrical and photoluminescence studies reveal that phosphorus-doped ZnO NWs (ZnO:P NWs) can be changed from n-type to p-type with increasing P concentration. Furthermore, we report for the first time the formation of an intramolecular p-n homojunction in a single ZnO:P NW. The p-n junction diode has a high on/off current ratio of 2.5 x 10(3) and a low forward turn-on voltage of approximately 1.37 V. Finally, the photoresponse properties of the diode were investigated under UV (325 nm) excitation in air at room temperature. The high photocurrent/dark current ratio (3.2 x 10(4)) reveals that the diode has a potential as extreme sensitive UV photodetectors.

Trapping of Ce electrons in band gap and room temperature ferromagnetism of Ce4+ doped ZnO nanowires

Rare-earth (RE) metal doped ZnO nanowires have been fabricated through a simple, quick, and versatile low temperature soft chemical method. The average length and diameter of nanowires lie in range of 5μm and 60nm, respectively. Raman and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies demonstrate that Ce has 4+ oxidation state and successfully substitutes Zn up to 2.5% into ZnO single phase wurtzite structure. Doping of Ce shows a remarkably prominent large redshift of 22nm in the UV region of the band gap, with an increase in the intensity of green emission band due to charge transfer of Ce4+ dopant. In addition, it has been interestingly found that RE (Ce) doped ZnO nanowires exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism, which makes them potential for spintronic devices with excellent optical characteristics.

Raman and photoluminescence properties of highly Cu doped ZnO nanowires fabricated by vapor-liquid-solid process.

Highly Cu doped ZnO nanowires have been fabricated by vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process. The average concentration of Cu in the ZnO nanowires is estimated to be 6 at. %. The ultrafine synthesized nanowires have diameters nearly 80 nm, while their average length lies in the range of 40 to 90 mum. Raman spectroscopy shows that the Cu doped ZnO nanowires have a typical wurtzite structure. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) investigations of individual nanowires demonstrate that the nanowires have single crystalline structure in which the growth direction is oriented along the c axis. Room temperature photoluminescence spectrum of as prepared nanowires shows two emissions in UV and visible regions that can be ascribed to the near band edge (NBE) transition and defects respectively, while the spectrum of the annealed nanowires exhibits a red shift in UV and a suppression in visible bands. Furthermore, the low temperature (10 K) PL spectrum illustrates a novel dominant blue emission relating to the different valence states of Cu atoms in ZnO, which is explained on the basis of Dingle model.

Effects of annealing on the ferromagnetism and photoluminescence of Cu-doped ZnO nanowires

Room temperature ferromagnetic Cu-doped ZnO nanowires have been synthesized using the chemical vapor deposition method. By combining structural characterizations and comparative annealing experiments, it has been found that both extrinsic (CuO nanoparticles) and intrinsic (Zn(1-x)Cu(x)O nanowires) sources are responsible for the observed ferromagnetic ordering of the as-grown samples. As regards the former, annealing in Zn vapor led to a dramatic decrease of the ferromagnetism. For the latter, a reversible switching of the ferromagnetism was observed with sequential annealings in Zn vapor and oxygen ambience respectively, which agreed well with previous reports for Cu-doped ZnO films. In addition, we have for the first time observed low temperature photoluminescence changed with magnetic properties upon annealing in different conditions, which revealed the crucial role played by interstitial zinc in directly mediating high T(c) ferromagnetism and indirectly modulating the Cu-related structured green emission via different charge transfer transitions.