Synthesis of In-doped Ga2O3 zigzag-shaped nanowires and optical properties

In-doped Ga2O3 zigzag-shaped nanowires and undoped Ga2O3 nanowires have been synthesized on Si substrate by thermal evaporation of mixed powders of Ga, In2O3 and graphite at 1000 °C without using any catalyst via a vapor–solid growth mechanism. The morphologies and microstructures of the products were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). The nanowires range from 100 nm to several hundreds of nanometers in diameter and several tens of micrometers in length. A broad emission band from 400 to 700 nm is obtained in the PL spectrum of these nanowires at room temperature. There are two blue-emission peaks centering at 450 and 500 nm, which originate from the oxygen vacancies, gallium vacancies and gallium–oxygen vacancy pairs.