One Step Growth of ZnO Nano-Tetrapods by Simple Thermal Evaporation Process: Structural and Optical Properties

Large scale zinc Oxide (ZnO) tetrapod structures were synthesized in a tube furnace via simple one-step thermal evaporation method by heating metallic Zn powders at 900±50 °C. The as grown materials were characterized by X-ray diffractometery (XRD), Scanning and Transmission electron microscopy, Raman-scattering (RS) and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Room-temperature PL spectrum exhibits strong near band edge (NBE) emission at ∼380 nm (UV) and defects related broad blue-green band emission at ∼520 nm. Raman spectroscopic analysis shows that these tetrapods have good crystalline quality. It is believed that this one-step growth will pave an easy way to large scale production of ZnO tetrapod structures for useful applications in nanotechnology.