Peculiarities of photoluminescence in gas ambient of doped ZnO nanopowders

Investigation of the peculiarities of photoluminescence in different gas ambients of Si- and Ge-doped ZnO nanopowders was carried out. Nanopowders were obtained and doped by means of pulsed laser reactive technology. X-ray diffractometry, scanning, and transmission electron microscopy were conducted to determine the structure, shape, and size of the nanoparticles. Changing the gas environment leads to a significant change in the intensity of the photoluminescence spectra and its deformation; this is a result of the redistribution of existing luminescence centers and the emergence of additional luminescence centers caused by the adsorption on the nanopowders surface. The decomposition of luminescence spectra into elementary bands shows the presence of four elementary peaks at 430, 480, 515, and 555 nm. The influence of the impurity and the gas medium on the redistribution of elementary luminescence band intensities was investigated. The investigated nanopowders can be effectively used as sensitive materials for the construction of gas sensor systems.