Ultraviolet light emission and excitonic fine structures in ultrathin single-crystalline indium oxide nanowires

We report the ultraviolet light emission from ultrathin indium oxide (In(2)O(3)) nanowires fabricated by the vapor-liquid-solid method. The high crystalline quality of the samples is confirmed by using x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Strong ultraviolet light emission is consistently observed in the temperature dependent photoluminescence measurements carried out between 10 and 300 K. Emissions related to free excitons and bound exciton complexes, donor-acceptor pair transition and its relevant longitudinal optical phonon replicas are identified and their temperature-dependent evolution is discussed in details.