Probing the strain effect on near band edge emission of a curved ZnO nanowire via spatially resolved cathodoluminescence.

Curved ZnO nanowires were deliberately prepared on a Si substrate and the strain effect on their near band edge (NBE) emission was investigated by spatially resolved cathodoluminescence (CL). By moving the electron beam step-by-step across individual curved nanowires and acquiring the CL spectra simultaneously, we found that the NBE emissions from the inner region of the curved nanowires with compressive strain show blueshift, while those from the outer region with tensile strain show redshift. Both the strains have been estimated from the local curvature by a geometrical model and have been further examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. A nearly linear relation between the strain and the peak energy shift in NBE emission was obtained. The result indicates that the optical band gap of ZnO nanowire is quite sensitive to and can be readily modulated by the induced strain via simply curving the nanowire, which has potential applications for designing new optical-electromechanical (OEM) and flexible optoelectronic nanodevices.