Optical properties of MgxZn1−xO nanowire photonic crystals

We investigate the optical properties of two-dimensional periodic arrays of well-aligned MgxZn1−xO nanowires, i.e., MgxZn1−xO nanowire photonic crystals. The nanowire photonic crystal can exhibit a photonic band gap in the visible range. As the mole fraction of Mg, x , increases, the edge frequencies of the band gap increase and the band gap size decreases. The characteristics of relative band gap and vacant point defect mode are also studied with varying x . From the finite-difference time-domain simulations, we show that the light extraction from nanowires can be controlled by varying the distance between optically excited nanowires and a waveguide, and the mole fraction of Mg. Controlling the light extraction from nanostructures can be useful in the implementation of nanoscale light emitting devices.