Surface-plasmon-mediated red and near infrared emission from Au-coated ZnO/ZnCr2O4 nanocomposites

The room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of Au coated hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods were investigated. Au coated ZnO nanorods were found to exhibit very large near band edge emission enhancement. Further by controlling the concentration of K2Cr2O7 in the precursor solution, the composition of the products has been significantly changed from ZnO nanorods to ZnO/ZnCr2O4 nanocomposites. Interestingly, the Au coating on ZnO/ZnCr2O4 nanocomposites has shown enhanced red and NIR emission and almost suppressed UV emission. A plausible mechanism has been proposed for the enhancement in red emission. The work presented here has tremendous potential for ZnO based red luminescent devices.

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