Electronic structure and optical gain of wurtzite ZnO nanowires

The electronic structure and optical gain of wurtzite ZnO nanowires are investigated in the framework of effective-mass envelope-function theory. We found that as the elliptical aspect ratio e increases to be larger than a critical value, the hole ground states may change from optically dark to optically bright. The optical gain of ZnO nanowires increases as the hole density increases. For elliptical wire with large e, the y-polarized mode gain can be several thousand cm(-1), while the x-poiarized mode gain may be 26 times smaller than the former, so they can be used as ultraviolet linearly polarized lasers. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics