Zirconium oxide (ZrO2) is a wide and direct band gap semiconductor used for the fabrication of optoelectronic devices. ZrO2 based optoelectronic devices span a wide optical range depending on the band gap of ZrO2 material. The band gap of ZrO2 can be tuned by fabricating it to the nanoscale. In this paper, we synthesized the ZrO2 nanostructures on quartz substrate using ZrO2 ions produced by the ablation of ZrO2 pellet due to high temperature, high density, and extremely non-equilibrium argon plasma in a modified dense plasma focus device. Uniformly distributed monoclinic ZrO2 nanostructures with an average dimension of ~14 nm were obtained through X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy studies. The monoclinic phase of ZrO2 nanostructures is further confirmed from photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectra. PL spectra show peaks in ultra-violet (UV), near-UV, and visible regions with tunable band gap of nanostructures. A similar tunability of band gap was observed from absorption spectra. The obtained structural, morphological, and optical properties are compared to investigate the potential applications of ZrO2 nanostructures in optoelectronic devices.

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The hot and dense plasma formed in modified dense plasma focus (DPF) device has been used worldwide for the nanofabrication of several materials. In this paper, we summarize the fabrication of III–V semiconductor nanostructures using the high fluence material ions produced by hot, dense and extremely non-equilibrium plasma generated in a modified DPF device. In addition, we present the recent results on the fabrication of porous nano-gallium arsenide (GaAs). The details of morphological, structural and optical properties of the fabricated nano-GaAs are provided. The effect of rapid thermal annealing on the above properties of porous nano-GaAs is studied. The study reveals that it is possible to tailor the size of pores with annealing temperature. The optical properties of these porous nano-GaAs also confirm the possibility to tailor the pore sizes upon annealing. Possible applications of the fabricated and subsequently annealed porous nano-GaAs in transmission-type photo-cathodes and visible optoelectronic devices are discussed. These results suggest that the modified DPF is an effective tool for nanofabrication of continuous and porous III–V semiconductor nanomaterials. Further opportunities for using the modified DPF device for the fabrication of novel nanostructures are discussed as well.