Photoluminescence of Ag-doped ZnSe nanowires synthesized by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Photoluminescence of Ag-doped ZnSe nanowires synthesized by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is investigated in the temperature range from 10 to 300 K. Ag impurities were introduced into the ZnSe nanowires during the growing process. Some dominating Ag-related centers are found. Especially, the strong zero-phonon bound exciton luminescence with energy near 2.747 eV is attributed to a neutral Ag-Zn acceptor complex. This is because the emission peak at the same energy is observed only in the photoluminescence spectrum of the Ag-doped bulk ZnSe. A new luminescence peak at 2.842 eV is attributed to the recombination of excitons bound to ionized acceptors (I-2(h)) in the hexagonal phase of ZnSe nanowires. The physical origins of the emissions are briefly discussed. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.