ABSTRACT
NiO had been claimed to have the potential for application in transparent conducting oxide, electrochromic device for light control, and nonvolatile memory device. However, the detailed study of excitonic transition and light-emission property of NiO has rarely been explored to date. In this work, we demonstrate strong exciton-complex emission of high-quality NiO nanotowers grown by hot-filament metal-oxide vapor deposition with photoluminescence as an evaluation tool. Fine and clear emission features coming from the excitonic edge of the NiO are obviously observed in the photoluminescence spectra. A main excitonic emission of ~3.25 eV at 300 K can be decomposed into free exciton, bound excitons, and donor-acceptor-pair irradiations at lowered temperatures down to 10 K. The band-edge excitonic structure for the NiO nanocrystals has been evaluated and analyzed by transmission and thermoreflectacne measurements herein. All the experimental results demonstrate the cubic NiO thin-film nanotower is an applicable direct-band-gap material appropriate for UV luminescence and transparent-conducting-oxide applications.
ABSTRACT
Photoconductivities of monocrystalline vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) nanowires (NWs) with layered orthorhombic structure grown by physical vapor deposition (PVD) have been investigated from the points of view of device and material. Optimal responsivity and gain for single-NW photodetector are at 7,900 A W-1 and 30,000, respectively. Intrinsic photoconduction (PC) efficiency (i.e., normalized gain) of the PVD-grown V2O5 NWs is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the V2O5 counterpart prepared by hydrothermal approach. In addition, bulk and surface-controlled PC mechanisms have been observed respectively by above- and below-bandgap excitations. The coexistence of hole trapping and oxygen sensitization effects in this layered V2O5 nanostructure is proposed, which is different from conventional metal oxide systems, such as ZnO, SnO2, TiO2, and WO3.
ABSTRACT
The α-phase Bi(2)O(3) (α-Bi(2)O(3)) is a crucial and potential visiblelight photocatalyst material needless of intentional doping on accommodating band gap. The understanding on fundamental optical property of α-Bi(2)O(3) is important for its extended applications. In this study, bismuth oxide nanowires with diameters from tens to hundreds nm have been grown by vapor transport method driven with vapor-liquid-solid mechanism on Si substrate. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman measurement confirm α phase of monoclinic structure for the as-grown nanowires. The axial direction for the as-grown nanowires was along < 122 >. The band-edge structure of α-Bi(2)O(3) has been probed experimentally by thermoreflectance (TR) spectroscopy. The direct band gap was determined accurately to be 2.91 eV at 300 K. Temperaturedependent TR measurements of 30-300 K were carried out to evaluate temperature-energy shift and line-width broadening effect for the band edge of α-Bi(2)O(3) thin-film nanowires. Photoluminescence (PL) experiments at 30 and 300 K were carried out to identify band-edge emission as well as defect luminescence for the α-Bi(2)O(3) nanowires. On the basis of experimental analyses of TR and PL, optical characteristics of direct band edge of α-Bi(2)O(3) nanowires have thus been realized.
