Vapour transport growth of ZnO nanorods

Abstract

The fabrication of low-dimensional ZnO structures has attracted enormous attention as such nanostructures are expected to pave the way for many interesting applications in optoelectronics, spin electronics gas sensor technology and biomedicine. Many reported fabrication methods, especially for ZnO nanorods are mostly based on catalyst-assisted growth techniques that employ metal-organic sources and other contaminating agents like graphite to grow ZnO nanorods at relatively high temperatures. We report on catalyst-free vapour-phase epitaxy growth of ZnO nanorods on 6H-SiC and (11-20)Al₂O₃ using purely elemental sources at relatively low temperatures and growth pressure. ZnO nanorods with widths of 80–900 nm and lengths of up to 12 μm were obtained. Nanorod density on the order of 10⁹ cm^-2 with homogenous luminescence and high purity was also noted.