Cathodoluminescence study of anodic nanochannel alumina

Nanochannel alumina (NCA) templates with highly ordered pore arrays were prepared by anodizing pure aluminum foil in acid solutions. Cathodoluminescence measurements reveal that a blue emission band appears at around 2.8 eV and its energy position depends on measurement temperature and pore size of NCA. The shift of the blue emission band energy with temperature is ascribed to the variations of electron–phonon interactions. X-ray absorption near-edge fine structure results show that the blue emission band shift with pore size is due to the local environment change of atoms in NCA.