Ultraviolet electroluminescence of light-emitting diodes based on single n-ZnO/p-AlGaN heterojunction nanowires.

We present successful fabrication of single n-ZnO/p-AlGaN heterojunction nanowires with excellent optoelectronic properties. Because of the formation of high-quality interfacial structure, heterojunction nanowire showed a diodelike rectification behavior and an electroluminescence (EL) ultraviolet (UV) emission centered at 394 nm from a single nanowire was observed when the injection current is 4 μA due to high exciton efficiency in the interfacial layer between ZnO and AlGaN. With the increase of the applied current, the EL peak at 5 μA becomes weaker revealing an optimal injection current of less than 5 μA. These results are expected to open up new application possibilities in nanoscale UV light-emitting devices based on single ZnO heterostructure.