Zinc Oxide/Samaria Nanowires with Intense Photoluminescence

Zinc Oxide is a very interesting material for its luminescent and electroluminescent properties. Electrodeposition allows one to prepare ZnO with desired morphology, structural and optical characteristics. Zinc Oxide can be doped with impurities in order to tune its electrical, optical or magnetic properties. When depositiong from a bath containing both zinc and samarium ions one deposits a bilayer of nanostructured ZnO/Sm2O3 with extremely interesting properties. The luminescence of the film is at least one order of magnitude higher than for a ZnO film deposited in similar conditions. When using a nanoporous membrane as template one can deposit nanowires containing both zinc oxide and samaria and exhibiting similar unusual high photoluminescence. Such nanowires can be easily used as building blocks for fabricating ultraminiaturised optic and optoelectronic devices.