Low-Temperature Growth and Characterization of Single Crystalline ZnO Nanorod Arrays Using a Catalyst-Free Inductively Coupled Plasma-Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition

Vertically aligned ZnO nanorod arrays have been synthesized on c-plane sapphires at a low temperature of 400 °C using catalyst-free inductively coupled plasma (ICP) metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique by varying the ICP powers. Diameters of the ZnO nanorods changed from 200 nm to 400 nm as the ICP power increased from 200 to 400 Watt. TEM and XRD investigations indicated that the ZnO nanorod arrays grown at ICP powers above 200 Watt had a homogeneous in-plane alignment and single crystalline nature. PL study at room temperature (RT) and 6 K confirmed that the ZnO nanorod arrays in the present study are of high optical quality as well as good crystalline quality, showing only exciton-related emission peaks without any trace of defect-related deep level emissions in visible range. The blueshift of exciton emission peak in RTPL spectra was also found as rod diameter decreased and it is deduced that this shift in emission energy may be due to the surface resonance effect resulted from the increased surface-to-volume ratio, based on the observation and behavior of the surface exciton (SX) emission in the high-resolution 6 K P L spectra.