Near-Infrared Emission from Modified Zinc Oxide Hybrid Nanostructures

Abstract Near-infrared emission is receiving a lot of attention due to their wide range of applications in imaging, optoelectronics and telecommunication. Here, we synthesize rare earth based organic complexes and use them to endow near-infrared emission capability into two-dimensional nanostructured transparent conducting oxide, specifically zinc oxide nanowalls. The hybrid ZnO nanowalls with Nd3+ complex are found to successfully generate characteristic near-infrared emissions at 887, 1066 and 1334 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and theoretical calculations show that the interfacial interactions between ZnO and the Nd3+ complex are driven by nitrate anions in the complex. Based on these results, we propose an unique cascade energy transfer mechanism from ZnO to Nd3+ via 1,10-phenanthroline, which could be generalized to account for emission of other similar hybrid systems.