Lattice variation and Raman spectroscopy in hierarchical heterostructures of zinc antimonate nanoislands on ZnO nanobelts.

In ZnO hierarchical heterostructures of zinc antimonate nanoislands on ZnO nanobelts, the substitution of Sb(5+) for Zn(2+) induces lattice contraction and a variation in vacancy defects, and moreover the preferential accumulation and segregation of Sb in [001] planes results in the intense perturbation of atomic motion in the a-b plane. Under nonresonant conditions, nonpolar E(2)(high) and polar quasi-longitudinal optic (LO) modes decrease in frequency due to finite-size and phonon confinement effects. Under resonant conditions, localized excitons can ionize to free carriers and form plasmons at higher excitation power density, resulting in the transformation of scattering coupling from localized exciton-LO-phonon to LO-phonon-plasmon. The intensity ratio of 2LO/1LO decreases and multiphonon scattering shows a decrease in frequency with unequal neighboring interval, and moreover the scattering coupling between the continuum of electron-hole plasmon and the discrete LO phonons causes an asymmetric lineshape.