Arsenic doping of ZnO nanowires by post-annealing treatment

Arsenic doping of ZnO nanowires for building blocks of potential nanoscale photonic devices is reported. It was demonstrated in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Raman spectroscopy that arsenic could be doped into the substitutional sites in ZnO lattice by post-annealing samples grown on GaAs substrates without degradation of the crystalline and optical qualities. In a series of photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy observations, arsenic-doped ZnO nanowires exhibited emission due to acceptor-bound excitons at room temperature. The observed emission characteristics implied that the dopant arsenic formed a hydrogen-like acceptor, suggesting the feasibility of producing possibly p-type ZnO nanowires via a simple route.