Epitaxial growth of ZnO nanorod arrays via a self-assembled microspheres lithography

Bo Cheng Lin, Ching Shun Ku, Hsin Yi Lee, Albert T. Wu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Through a simple hydrothermal method, well-aligned and periodic honeycomb-like ZnO nanorod arrays were fabricated on a c-plane sapphire with an aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) seed layer. Vertical and highly ordered ZnO nanostructures with the <0002> orientation were synthesized by employing a self-assembled monolayer of polystyrene (PS) microspheres as a mask. The optimal growth conditions allowed the growth of only one rod in the confined space between the microspheres. A ϕ-scan exhibited six-fold symmetry, which indicates a favorable epitaxial relationship between the ZnO nanorods, seed layer, and c-plane sapphire substrate. The epitaxial relation is as follows: [0001] ZnO ∥[0001] AZO ∥[0001] c-planesapphire . These results indicate that the AZO seed layer acts as a buffer layer that can relax the strain between ZnO and c-plane sapphire generated by the large lattice mismatch of 18%. The size of the resulting ZnO nanorods of diameter 20–90 nm could be tuned by varying the concentration of the solution, pH, and duration of reaction. The large aspect ratio of the ZnO nanorod arrays can serve as a template for high-surface-area applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)212-217
Number of pages6
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume414
DOIs
StatePublished - 31 Aug 2017

Keywords

  • Epitaxial growth
  • Hydrothermal growth
  • Nanosphere lithography
  • Zinc oxide nanorod arrays

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