Aluminum doped zinc oxide as UV laser-based nanothermometer

Abstract This work explores thermal laser-based nano-sensing capabilities utilising random lasing emission obtained from zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods prepared by chemical bath deposition. The ZnO nanorods were doped with Aluminum (Al) at a concentration of 10 mM by using a simple dip method for several dip durations of 20 s, 30 s, 40 s, 60 s, 80 s, and 100 s, respectively. Random lasing emission was observed in all samples and was tested on its thermal sensitivity from the increased heat of the nanorod structure. The highest thermal sensitivity of 0.001 °C −1 was obtained from Al-doped ZnO nanorods that were dipped for 60 s. The lasing threshold was 22.92 mJ cm −2 and the lasing spectral width was 1.16 nm.