Low-temperature photoluminescence of phosphorous-doped ZnO nanowires synthesized by nanoparticle-assisted pulsed-laser deposition

Phosphorpus-doped ZnO nanowires were synthesized by our newly developed nanoparticle-assisted pulsed-laser deposition (NAPLD) technique under various growth conditions. This NAPLD technique, which does not require a catalyst for crystal growth, is expected to synthesize high-quality nanostructured ZnO crystals. The luminescence properties were investigated by a photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and the ultraviolet luminescence band (UVL) was observed at low-temperature. This UVL band consists of several sharp emission lines due to free excitonsb (FX), donor-bound excitons, acceptor-bound excitons, donor-acceptor pair (DAP) transitions, and their longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon replicas. We discuss the influence of the growth conditions on the luminescence properties.