Temperature dependent photoluminescence study on phosphorus doped ZnO nanowires

We report temperature dependent photoluminescence studies on phosphorus doped ZnO nanowires. The shape of the spectra is very similar to those of phosphorus doped ZnO films. The photoluminescence spectrum at 10 K is dominated by neutral acceptor bound exciton (A X-0) emissions. The acceptor binding energy determined also agrees with the corresponding value in phosphorus doped films. Studies on the A X-0 intensity show two quenching channels, associated with the thermal dissociations of A X-0 to a free exciton and of shallow residual donors. The residual donors revealed provide a clue for the difficulty in p doping of ZnO. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.