Growth and bending-sensitive photoluminescence of a flexible PbTiO₃/ZnO nanocomposite

A brushlike PbTiO3 (PTO)/ZnO nanocomposite with ZnO nanowires (NWs) grown epitaxially on the surface of single-crystal ferroelectric tetragonal PTO NWs is successfully fabricated onto a flexible substrate via a two-step hydrothermal process. In this nanocomposite, a ZnO NW grew along [0001] on the (101) plane of the core PTO NW with a lattice mismatch of 1.06% to form an effective ferroelectric/semiconductor interface. It is found that the ultraviolet photoluminescence emission of the nanocomposite could be easily tuned by its bending curvatures at room temperature. This intriguing phenomenon can be understood by the bending-induced polarization field from the PTO NW, which could reduce the bending degree of the energy band of the ZnO NWs through the interface. Throughthe design of an effective interface, this kind of ferroelectric/semiconductor nanocomposite may find potential applications in sensor and piezophotonic nanodevices.