Mapping of two-photon luminescence amplification in zinc-oxide microstructures

The mapping of two-photon excited luminescence in aggregations of free-standing zinc oxide microrods has been carried out at room temperature. Two-photon luminescence spectra in the excitonic region for individual microrods have been recorded. The luminescence intensity exhibits a power-law dependence on the optical pump power with the exponent $n >$ 2. This fact, along with the existence of a threshold power above which the dependence in the exciton region deviates from a quadratic one, indicates the onset of light amplification in individual ZnO microrods and the conditions preceding laser oscillation.