Structure and photoluminescence properties of TeO2-core/TiO2-shell nanowires

• TeO2-core/TiO2-shell nanowires were fabricated.
• The intensity of the emission from the nanowires showed strong dependence on the shell layer thickness.
• The strongest emission was obtained for the shell layer thickness of ∼15 nm.
• The enhancement in emission intensity is due to the optical resonant cavity formation.

TeO2-core/TiO2-shell nanowires were fabricated by thermal evaporation of Te powders and MOCVD of TiO2. The as-synthesized TeO2 nanowires showed a weak broad violet band centered at approximately 430 nm. The emission peak was shifted to a bluish violet region (∼455 nm) by the encapsulation of the nanowires with a TiO2 thin film. The intensity of the major emission from the core–shell nanowires showed strong dependence on the shell layer thickness. The strongest emission was obtained for the shell layer thickness of ∼15 nm and its intensity was approximately 80 times higher than that of the violet emission from the as-synthesized TeO2 nanowires. This enhancement in emission intensity is attributed to the subwavelength optical resonant cavity formation in the shell layer. The major emission intensity was enhanced further and blue-shifted by annealing, which might be attributed to the increase in the Ti interstitial and O vacancy concentrations in the TeO2 cores during annealing.