Novel pulsed electron deposition route to ZnO nanowire arrays

Well aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with uniform size are grown on Au-coated indium tin oxide substrates via a novel pulsed electron deposition (PED) technique. These nanowires have single-crystal hexagonal wurtzite structure and are grown along [0 0 0 1]. Au nanoparticles are found at the tip of the nanowires, indicating the growth process follows a typical vapor–liquid–solid mechanism. It is also found that the aligned ZnO nanowire arrays can be grown on Au-coated 6H-SiC and Si substrates, revealing that the PED technique is applicable for growth of ZnO nanowires on some common substrates. All the photoluminescence spectra of the ZnO nanowires reveal strong ultraviolet emission bands, indicating that the high-quality ZnO nanowires can be fabricated via the novel PED technique.

Research highlights▶ Well aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with uniform size are synthesized by novel pulsed electron deposition technique assisted by Au catalyst. ▶ The growth of ZnO nanowires follows typical VLS mechanism and is independent of substrates. ▶ All the PL spectra of the ZnO nanowires only reveal strong ultraviolet emission bands, indicating that the nanowires are well crystalline and free of both bulk defects and intrinsic point defects.