Morphology and luminescence properties of zinc oxide nanopowders doped with aluminum ions obtained by hydrothermal and vapor condensation methods

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the influence of Al doping on microstructure and light emission efficiency of ZnO nanoparticles obtained by the hydrothermal method and after vapor condensation method, where vaporization of the precursor powders was caused by high solar energy and subsequent deposition. We report an increase of lattice parameters with increasing level of doping as well as large emission enhancement, which we relate to surface passivation of recombination mechanisms and/or plasmon mechanism of photoluminescence stimulation. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.