Lithium doping and photoluminescence properties of ZnO nanorods

This article presents a comprehensive experimental study of optical properties of Li-doped ZnO nanorods grown by a low temperature (300 °C) thermal decomposition method. In particular, a study of the room temperature photoluminescence spectra dependence on the Li concentration is presented here. The doping of Li in ZnO nanorods results in a redshift in near band edge emission (NBE) compared to the undoped ZnO nanorods. Depending on the Li concentration, we observe a green emission in Photoluminescence spectra. The possible physical mechanisms governing the visible region luminescence are also discussed. These results show that Li-doped ZnO nanorods with strong visible region luminescence have potential applications in optoelectronic devices.