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Nano Research 2018, 11(7): 3864-3876 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1960-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 02 August 2018

Growth modulation of simultaneous epitaxy of ZnO obliquely aligned nanowire arrays and film on r-plane sapphire substrate

Show Author's Information Yongchun Xiao1,2,  Yaoyao Tian1,2,  Shujing Sun1,  Chenlong Chen1( ),  Buguo Wang3( )
Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and PhysicsFujian Institute of Research on the Structure of MatterChinese Academy of SciencesFuzhou350002China
College of Materials Science and EngineeringFujian Normal UniversityFuzhou350007China
Semiconductor Research CenterWright State UniversityDaytonOH45431USA
Keywords:
ZnO, epitaxy, obliquely aligned nanowire arrays, non-polar thin film, zinc self-catalyzed
Cite this article:
Xiao Y, Tian Y, Sun S, et al. Growth modulation of simultaneous epitaxy of ZnO obliquely aligned nanowire arrays and film on r-plane sapphire substrate. Nano Research, 2018, 11(7): 3864-3876. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1960-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Simultaneous epitaxial growth of film and nanowire array on a substrate is of both scientific significance and practical importance for nanoscale optoelectronics. Nevertheless, in situ building conducting connection between individually isolated nanowires grown on insulating substrates is still challenging. Herein, we demonstrate a novel and facile strategy for the simultaneous epitaxial growth of nonpolar a-plane ZnO film and obliquely aligned nanowire array on Au-coated r-plane sapphire substrate. The morphology, structure, components, and optical properties of the as-synthesized ZnO nanostructures were investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, field-emission transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. A cooperative growth mechanism is proposed: Au-catalyzed vapor transport initiates the co-occurrence of nonpolar a-plane and polar c-plane ZnO nuclei, and subsequently, the non-upward directed Au catalyst helps the nonpolar a-plane ZnO nuclei develop into a ZnO conductive film at the bottom and zinc self-catalyzed vapor–liquid–solid growth helps the polar c-plane ZnO nuclei develop simultaneously into obliquely aligned nanowire arrays. The proposed strategy realized in situ synthesis of nanowires with conductive connection and it can benefit the application of ZnO nanowires in optoelectronics.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Growth modulation of simultaneous epitaxy of ZnO obliquely aligned nanowire arrays and film on r-plane sapphire substrate

Show Author's information Yongchun Xiao1,2, Yaoyao Tian1,2, Shujing Sun1, Chenlong Chen1( ), Buguo Wang3( )
Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and PhysicsFujian Institute of Research on the Structure of MatterChinese Academy of SciencesFuzhou350002China
College of Materials Science and EngineeringFujian Normal UniversityFuzhou350007China
Semiconductor Research CenterWright State UniversityDaytonOH45431USA

Abstract

Simultaneous epitaxial growth of film and nanowire array on a substrate is of both scientific significance and practical importance for nanoscale optoelectronics. Nevertheless, in situ building conducting connection between individually isolated nanowires grown on insulating substrates is still challenging. Herein, we demonstrate a novel and facile strategy for the simultaneous epitaxial growth of nonpolar a-plane ZnO film and obliquely aligned nanowire array on Au-coated r-plane sapphire substrate. The morphology, structure, components, and optical properties of the as-synthesized ZnO nanostructures were investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, field-emission transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. A cooperative growth mechanism is proposed: Au-catalyzed vapor transport initiates the co-occurrence of nonpolar a-plane and polar c-plane ZnO nuclei, and subsequently, the non-upward directed Au catalyst helps the nonpolar a-plane ZnO nuclei develop into a ZnO conductive film at the bottom and zinc self-catalyzed vapor–liquid–solid growth helps the polar c-plane ZnO nuclei develop simultaneously into obliquely aligned nanowire arrays. The proposed strategy realized in situ synthesis of nanowires with conductive connection and it can benefit the application of ZnO nanowires in optoelectronics.

Keywords: ZnO, epitaxy, obliquely aligned nanowire arrays, non-polar thin film, zinc self-catalyzed

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 16 October 2017
Revised: 02 December 2017
Accepted: 10 December 2017
Published: 02 August 2018
Issue date: July 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2017

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by Hundred Talents Program of Fujian Province and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61774158), and Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2018J01110).

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