Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2016
Two segments of horizontally grown crystalline ZnO nanorods (NRs) connected withan amorphous layer have been successfully and reproducibly synthesized usingone-step hydrothermal technique by controlling the growth rate. The confocalphotoluminescence (PL) imaging and spectroscopy of twin ZnO NRs at differenttemperatures shows intense red emission with comparably week UV emission. Thestrong red emission from the twin NRs is a consequence of structuralimperfections. Both UV and red bands showed signatures of strong temperaturedependent exciton-phonon scattering. Using the intensity ratio of the UV and redemissions, we show that the individual ZnO NRs can be used as highly sensitivecryogenic temperature sensors below ∼175 K.