title: Interfacially Al-doped ZnO nanowires: greatly enhanced near band edge emission through suppressed electron-phonon coupling and confined optical field.
abstract: Aluminium (Al)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (NWs) with a unique core-shell structure and a Δ-doping profile at the interface were successfully grown using a combination of chemical vapor deposition re-growth and few-layer AlxOyatomic layer deposition. Unlike the conventional heavy doping which degrades the near-band-edge (NBE) luminescence and increases the electron-phonon coupling (EPC), it was found that there was an over 20-fold enhanced NBE emission and a notably-weakened EPC in this type of interfacially Al-doped ZnO NWs. Further experiments revealed a greatly suppressed nonradiative decay process and a much enhanced radiative recombination rate. By comparing the finite-difference time-domain simulation with the experimental results from intentionally designed different NWs, this enhanced radiative decay rate was attributed to the Purcell effect induced by the confined and intensified optical field within the interfacial layer. The ability to manipulate the confinement, transport and relaxation dynamics of ZnO excitons can be naturally guaranteed with this unique interfacial Δ-doping strategy, which is certainly desirable for the applications using ZnO-based nano-photonic and nano-optoelectronic devices.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yiming
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3764-0322
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yanmeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shenlong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dongxue
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yukun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Huaiyi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China and Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China. npan@ustc.edu.cn xpwang@ustc.edu.cn and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China and Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang