Surface plasmon enhanced bandgap emission of electrochemically grown ZnO nanorods using Au nanoparticles

Electrochemical deposition of ZnO nanorods having a diameter of 80–150 nm and length ~ 2 μm has been carried out. Au particles were sputtered on the ZnO nanorods for different sputtering times (from 0 to 100 s). The Photoluminescence spectra of bare ZnO nanorods showed a weak bandgap emission at around 375 nm and a broad defect-related emission band centered at ~ 596 nm. After the Au sputtering, the defect-related emission disappeared for all the samples. Moreover, the band edge emission intensity was enhanced with Au sputtering time 50 s. The enhancement factor reached a maximum value for the Au sputtering time of 50 s The enhancement in band edge emission is due to the transfer of electrons from defect states to the Au nanoparticles that cause not only an increase of resonant electron density, but also creates energetic electrons in the higher energy states. These resonant electrons can escape from the surface of the Au nanoparticles to conduction band of ZnO nanorods leading to the suppression of defect related emission intensity.