Lasing emission from hybrid silver nanowires and zinc oxide

Abstract Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) were produced by the polyol technique at a temperature of 160 °C and investigated as a random laser device by hybrid combination with zinc oxide (ZnO). A revised polyol method was employed with a short time of only 20 min and without an oil path. Ag NWs are extracted through centrifugation with diameters and lengths of approximately 55 nm and 1.7 μm, respectively. Subsequently, ZnO nanopowder is applied as the gain medium for investigating random lasing emission with scatterer resonance provided by the Ag NWs under different configurations: Ag NWs on top of ZnO, ZnO on top of Ag NWs, and finally a mixture of ZnO powder and Ag before applying on glass. The goal is to come up with the best configuration for hybrid Ag NWs and ZnO nanopowder, a novel combination for enhancing random lasing that is yet to be explored. The findings show the existence of Ag NWs within ZnO improves the spectral width of the lasing emission, indicating superior lasing properties. The best sample showed the lowest lasing threshold of 10 mJ cm−2, which was obtained from the mixture configuration.