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Wurtzite CdS nanoribbons are prepared by using a simple thermal evaporation method. Electron microscopy shows that the ribbons are smooth in surface and uniform in size. Besides the intrinsic emission, the photoluminescence spectrum of a CdS nanoribbon shows a peak at about 580 nm, which may arise from the defect- and the trap- related transitions. The photoresponse of single CdS nanoribbons is researched. When these nanoribbons are exposed to a laser with a wavelength of 400 nm, their conductivity is enhanced greatly. The conductivity of CdS nanoribbons cannot be restored to a value without any illumination even at 5 minutes after the illumination. A model is proposed to explain this phenomenon, which may be due to a slow photoresponse induced by the trap.

A wide wavelength tuning range swept external-cavity laser using an InAs/GaAs quantum-dot superluminescent diode as a gain device is demonstrated. The tunable filter consists of a polygon scanner and a grating in Littrow telescope-less configuration. The swept laser generates greater than 54-mW peak output power and up to 33-kHz sweep rate with a sweep range of 150 nm centered at 1155 nm. The effects of injection current and sweep rate on the sweep performance of the swept laser are studied.

A mode-locked external-cavity laser emitting at 1.17-μm wavelength using an InAs/GaAs quantum-dot gain medium and a discrete semiconductor saturable absorber mirror is demonstrated. By changing the external-cavity length, repetition rates of 854, 912, and 969 MHz are achieved respectively. The narrowest −3-dB radio-frequency linewidth obtained is 38 kHz, indicating that the laser is under stable mode-locking operation.

The optical performance of a grating-coupled external cavity laser based on InAs/InP quantum dots is investigated. Continuous tuning from 1391 nm to 1468 nm is realized at an injection current of 1900 mA. With the injection current increasing to 2300 mA, the tuning is blue shifted to some extent to the range from 1383 nm to 1461 nm. By combining the effect of the injection current with the grating tuning, the total tuning bandwidth of the external cavity quantum-dot laser can reach up to 85 nm. The dependence of the threshold current on the tuning wavelength is also presented.

Alpha-Fe2O3 nanorods are synthesized through a hydrothermal method with no surfactant introduced and ethanol sensors are fabricated from these nanorods. The device can respond to ethanol vapour in a concentration range from 1 to 1500 parts per million and shows both p-type and n-type responding characteristics during the investigation of the ethanol sensing. The sensor displays a p-type characteristic when the ethanol concentration is low and converted into an n-type characteristic as the concentration exceeds a certain value. Such a phenomenon is attributed to the chemisorbed oxygen, which leads to different modifications of the energy band at the surface, namely, depletion layer or inversion layer.