Intense luminescence from porous ZnSe layers

Abstract

The porous form of III-V semiconductors was extensively studied during the last decade. Porosity enhanced phenomena such as optical second harmonic generation and Terahertz emission have been reported. Porosity induced increase of cathodoluminescence intensity was observed in GaP. In spite of the huge surface inherent to porous matrix, gallium phosphide in the porous form shows CL intensity one order of magnitude higher than that of bulk crystals under the same excitation conditions. On the other hand, relatively little attention has previously been paid to the study of porosity-induced changes in the properties of II-VI compounds. ZnSe is one of the most important wide-band-gap semiconductors suitable for nanostructuring by means of electrochemical methods. This material is especially interesting in connection with the development of random lasers. Nanocomposite materials prepared on the basis of porous semiconductor templates are most suitable for this purpose, due to the possibility of integration with other optical or electronic functions.