Photoluminescence behavior of ZnO nanorods produced by eclipse PLD from a Zn metal target

In this work, arrays of one-dimensional ZnO nanostructures were deposited on cc-axis sapphire by standard and eclipse pulsed laser deposition (EPLD) using a metallic Zn target. One reference sample was grown by standard PLD and nine were grown by EPLD using a 16 by 16 mm2 square shadow mask. Three shadow mask positions were used, with three depositions at varying oxygen pressures for each mask position. The oxygen partial pressure was between 100 and 200 mTorr for all growth procedures with a substrate temperature of 600 ∘C.SEM reveals that arrays of nanorods are formed when growing by standard PLD. When grown by EPLD the rods tend to clump together with ordering on the micron scale. Low temperature photoluminescence was carried out as a function of position over several of the samples with 1 or 2 mm spacing. In general, it was found that the luminescence intensity is maximum in the center of the samples and falls off toward the edges while the shape stays roughly the same. Free exciton emission was resolved in most samples along with several other emission peaks from donor-bound excitons. The integrated PL intensity for all the EPLD samples is an order of magnitude higher than for the standard PLD sample. Linewidths are significantly reduced as well. Hence, the EPLD grown samples have superior optical quality and this growth technique shows promise for growth of high quality ZnO nanostructures.