Indium Dopant Concentration Effects on Zinc Oxide Nanowires.

We report in detail the effects of varying the concentration of indium as a dopant in ZnO on the structural, vibrational, and optical properties of ZnO nanowires. A highly versatile route to dope zinc oxide nanowires by using vapor-liquid-solid growth is employed. It is observed that the ratio of indium in ZnO reactant has a large impact on properties of indium-doped ZnO nanowires. Lower indium concentration reveals better transparency while higher concentrations of indium shows segregation of indium-rich domains within the doped nanocrystals. Photoluminescence measurements demonstrated band gap tuning and a smaller UV to deep emission ratio for doped nanowires. Phonon vibrational modes along with origin of observed anomalous vibrational modes induced due to indium incorporation in ZnO are discussed. An average transmittance of more than 90% is observed for a wide range of spectra in both visible and near-IR regions as compared with indium tin oxide. The lowest resistivity of 1.2 × 10-3 Ω·cm was achieved for ZnO films doped with 7% indium oxide. These dramatically superior optical and electrical properties make it a superior candidate for various technological applications.

Defect induced structural inhomogeneity, ultraviolet light emission and near-band-edge photoluminescence broadening in degenerate In2O3 nanowires.

We demonstrate here defect induced changes on the morphology and surface properties of indium oxide (In2O3) nanowires and further study their effects on the near-band-edge (NBE) emission, thereby showing the significant influence of surface states on In2O3 nanostructure based device characteristics for potential optoelectronic applications. In2O3 nanowires with cubic crystal structure (c-In2O3) were synthesized via carbothermal reduction technique using a gold-catalyst-assisted vapor-liquid-solid method. Onset of strong optical absorption could be observed at energies greater than 3.5 eV consistent with highly n-type characteristics due to unintentional doping from oxygen vacancy [Formula: see text] defects as confirmed using Raman spectroscopy. A combination of high resolution transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and valence band analysis on the nanowire morphology and stoichiometry reveals presence of high-density of [Formula: see text] defects on the surface of the nanowires. As a result, chemisorbed oxygen species can be observed leading to upward band bending at the surface which corresponds to a smaller valence band offset of 2.15 eV. Temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was used to study the nature of the defect states and the influence of the surface states on the electronic band structure and NBE emission has been discussed. Our data reveals significant broadening of the NBE PL peak consistent with impurity band broadening leading to band-tailing effect from heavy doping.

Ultrafast carrier dynamics and optical pumping of lasing from Ar-plasma treated ZnO nanoribbons.

It is a well-known fact that ZnO has been one of the most studied wide bandgap II-VI materials by the scientific community specifically due to its potential for being used as exciton-related optical devices. Hence, realizing ways to increase the efficiency of these devices is important. We discuss a plasma treatment technique to enhance the near-band-edge (NBE) excitonic emission from ZnO based nanoribbons. We observed an enhancement of the NBE peak and simultaneous quenching of the visible emission peak resulting from the removal of surface traps on these ZnO nanoribbons. More importantly, we report here the associated ultrafast carrier dynamics resulting from this surface treatment. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy was performed using pump-probe differential transmission measurements shedding new light on these improved dynamics with faster relaxation times. The knowledge obtained is important for improving the application of ZnO based optoelectronic devices. We also observed how these improved carrier dynamics have a direct effect on the threshold and efficiency of random lasing from the material.

Graphene oxide and DNA aptamer based sub-nanomolar potassium detecting optical nanosensor.

Quantum-dot (QD) based nanosensors are frequently used by researchers to detect small molecules, ions and different biomolecules. In this article, we present a sensor complex/system comprised of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) aptamer, gold nanoparticle and semiconductor QD, attached to a graphene oxide (GO) flake for detection of potassium. As reported herein, it is demonstrated that QD-aptamer-quencher nanosensor functions even when tethered to GO, opening the way to future applications where sensing can be accomplished simultaneously with other previously demonstrated applications of GO such as serving as a nanocarrier for drug delivery. Herein, it is demonstrated that the DNA based thrombin binding aptamer used in this study undergoes the conformational change needed for sensing even when the nanosensor complex is anchored to the GO. Analysis with the Hill equation indicates the interaction between aptamer and potassium follows sigmoidal Hill kinetics. It is found that the quenching efficiency of the optical sensor is linear with the logarithm of concentration from 1 pM to 100 nM and decreases for higher concentration due to unavailability of aptamer binding sites. Such a simple and sensitive optical aptasensor with minimum detection capability of 1.96 pM for potassium ion can also be employed in-vitro detection of different physiological ions, pathogens and disease detection methods.

A Graphene and Aptamer Based Liquid Gated FET-Like Electrochemical Biosensor to Detect Adenosine Triphosphate.

Here we report successful demonstration of a FET-like electrochemical nano-biosensor to accurately detect ultralow concentrations of adenosine triphosphate. As a 2D material, graphene is a promising candidate due to its large surface area, biocompatibility, and demonstrated surface binding chemistries and has been employed as the conducting channel. A short 20-base DNA aptamer is used as the sensing element to ensure that the interaction between the analyte and the aptamer occurs within the Debye length of the electrolyte (PBS). Significant increase in the drain current with progressive addition of ATP is observed whereas for control experiments, no distinct change in the drain current occurs. The sensor is found to be highly sensitive in the nanomolar (nM) to micromolar ( µM) range with a high sensitivity of 2.55 µA (mM) (-1), a detection limit as low as 10 pM, and it has potential application in medical and biological settings to detect low traces of ATP. This simplistic design strategy can be further extended to efficiently detect a broad range of other target analytes.