Sublinear and superlinear photoluminescence from Nd doped anodic aluminum oxide templates loaded with Ag nanowires

We first time prepared Nd(3+) ions doped anodic aluminum oxide (Nd:AAO) templates, reported linear, sublinear and superlinear photoluminescence (PL) from Nd:AAO templates loaded with Ag nanowires in different excitation power regions, in which, the excitation laser with wavelength 805 nm resonantly pumped the population to (4)F5/2 states of Nd(3+), and the radiative transitions (4)F(3/2) -->(4)I(9/2) of Nd(3+) centered at 880 nm. The excitation power dependences of emission polarization ratio and the spectral width were also investigated. The observed nonlinear amplifications of the PL intensity implied strong interaction between randomly-dispersed Nd(3+) ions and ordered-arrayed Ag nanowires in AAO templates.