Nitrogen incorporation in ZnO nanowires using N2O dopant gas

Aligned nitrogen-doped ZnO nanowires were grown by chemical vapour deposition using Au catalyst. N incorporation was achieved through the introduction of N2O gas as a dopant source and confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, which reveals additional N-related modes at 275, 580 and 642 cm(-1). The nanowires have a hexagonal faceted shape and are predominantly grown along the [001] direction. The nanowire morphology is unaffected by N incorporation. The luminescence peak at 3.24 eV was monitored as a function of N2O content. Intensity analysis of this band reveals that it can be partly attributed to donor-acceptor pair (DAP) emission originating from the N doping. Crown Copyright (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.