Exciton-related electroluminescence from ZnO nanowire light-emitting diodes

The authors study the microscopic origin of the electroluminescence from zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated on a heavily doped p-type silicon (p-Si) substrate. By comparing the low-temperature photoluminescence and electroluminescence of a single nanowire LED, bound- and free-exciton related recombination processes, together with their longitudinal-optical phonon replicas, can be identified as the origin of both electroluminescence and photoluminescence.