Structure and stimulated emission of ZnSe nanoribbons grown by thermal evaporation

Zinc selenide nanoribbons were synthesized on silicon wafers by simple thermal evaporation of high purity ZnSe powder. The x-ray diffraction pattern indicates that all diffraction peaks can be attributed to the zinc-blende structured ZnSe. The selected-area electron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy also show the typical structure of highly crystalline zinc-blende. The stimulated emission of these ZnSe nanoribbons can be observed under a nanosecond laser pulse excitation at a threshold of about 200 kW cm^-2. These ZnSe nanoribbons with more structural defects, which were made from a low purity source, only show an emission band at about 610 nm in the photoluminescence spectrum. Furthermore, experiments show that both types of ZnSe nanoribbons show good waveguide properties.