The author observe sixfold enhancement in the near band gap emission of ZnO nanorods by employing surface plasmon of Au nanoparticles, while the defect-related emission is completely suppressed. Time-resolved photoluminescence indicates that the decay process becomes much faster by Au capping. The remarkable enhancement of the ultraviolet emission intensities and transition rates is ascribed to the charge transfer and efficient coupling between ZnO nanorods and Au surface plasmons. The suppression of the green emission might be due to a combined effect of Au surface plasmon and passivation of the ZnO nanorod surface traps.

We present our study of the dependence of surface plasmon (SP) coupled band gap emission and defect emission on the sputtering time of gold particles on ZnCdO films. Eightfold enhancement of the band gap emission from ZnCdO thin films coated with Au particles is observed, while the defect emission is completely suppressed. The remarkable enhancement of the band gap emission is mainly attributed to the coupling between excitons in ZnCdO films and the SP of Au particles. While the suppression of the defect emission may be ascribed to a combined effect of the reduction in surface defects and the charge transfer from defect level to the Au Fermi level.