Effects of laser ablation in fabrication of ZnO nanorods by chemical vapor deposition

We studied the effects of laser ablation on morphology of ZnO nanorods fabricated by low-pressure thermal chemical vapor deposition combined with laser ablation of Mn. In this paper, we studied the effects of laser-ablation time period at an initial stage of ZnO nanorods’ growth. Both laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition are started simultaneously and only laser ablation is stopped on the way to ZnO nanorods’ growth. It is concluded from the experimental results that a laser ablation less than about 3 min after ZnO growth initiated shows remarkable effects on diameter, length, number-density and growth direction of ZnO nanorods, and that a laser ablation more than about 5 min has little effect on morphology of ZnO nanorods. Further, it is especially recognized that even if the laser-ablation time period is only 5 s the laser ablation has an outstanding effect on nanorod growth.