Synthesis and photoluminescence of Cl-doped ZnO nanospheres

Cl-doped ZnO nanospheres with the average diameter about 60 nm have been synthesized by a wet chemical route followed by annealing in air. The samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) spectra, respectively. The results indicate that Cl-doping in ZnO nanospheres induces a new defect energy level between the luminescent center and the conduction band, which results in considerable enhancement of the green PL intensity.