Synthesis and yellow luminescence study of single-crystalline SnO 2 nanowires

High-quality rutile SnO 2 nanowires have been synthesized by the chemical evaporation deposition method. The structure and optical properties of SnO 2 nanowires were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy. It is found that the as-synthesized SnO 2 nanowires exhibit a high phase purity and mainly show tetragonal rutile structure. A wide yellow emission centered at 540 nm and its luminous intensity increased with the increase of the growth temperature. The first-principles band structure calculated results indicate that V Sn may be the key defect which is responsible for the yellow luminescence. © 2012 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved.