Bright blue emission from Te-doped ZnS nanowires

Optical properties of Te-doped ZnS (ZnS:Te) nanowires (NWs) synthesized by a thermal chemical vapor deposition method were investigated by cathodeluminescence and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. ZnS:Te NWs exhibit the blue emission with the maximum peak at ∼440 nm at room temperature. We calculated Te-induced states on the valence band and conduction band in ZnS bulk crystal compared with PL peaks of ZnS:Te NWs. Temperature-dependent PL indicated that the activation energy of electron confined in ZnS:Te NWs is 85 meV. Blue light-emitting dot matrix displays were also fabricated using ZnS:Te NWs. This result suggested that ZnS:Te NWs could be applied as a blue-color-emitter on display devices.