Tuning intrinsic photoluminescence from light-emitting multispectral nanoporous anodic alumina photonic crystals

Abstract

To control and harness the intrinsic photoluminescence of solid-state, light-emitting materials produced by self-organization approaches remain challenging. This study demonstrates how the intrinsic broadband photoluminescence emission from nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) produced by anodization of aluminum in oxalic acid electrolyte can be precisely tuned by engineering its structure in the form of photonic crystals (PCs). A combination of pulse and constant anodization in distinct acid electrolytes makes it possible to engineer a novel heterogeneous optical structure consisting of two layers: (i) a non-emitting, light-filtering layer in the form of multi-spectral nanoporous anodic alumina photonic crystals (MS–NAA–PCs) on its top (i.e., 58 µm thick and average pore diameter of 17 nm) and (ii) an intrinsically light-emitting layer of NAA at its bottom (i.e., 50 µm thick an average pore diameter of 40 nm). MS–NAA–PCs are engineered to feature three intense, well-resolved photonic stopbands (PSBs), the positions of which are spaced at specific regions of the visible spectrum from ∼380 to 560 nm. It is demonstrated that the PSBs of the non-emitting MS–NAA–PCs on top of the heterogeneous optical structure act as a light-filtering component, which makes it possible to narrow and tune the characteristically broad, Gaussian-like photoluminescence emission from the underlying light-emitting NAA layer. This structural design makes it possible to narrow the width of photoluminescence emission up to ∼50 nm and blue shift its position for ∼15 nm. Our advances pave the way for novel designs of intrinsic, light-emitting NAA-based PC structures, which could find broad applicability across light technologies, such as sensing and biosensing, photodetection, and solar light harvesting.