Growth of single-crystalline ZnO film with two-dimensional periodic structure on Si(1 1 1) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

Single-crystalline ZnO film with two-dimensional periodic structure was grown on Si(1 1 1) substrate by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The influence of substrate orientations and growth temperatures was explored for achieving a high-quality ZnO film. It was found that ZnO epilayers grown on Si(1 1 1) substrate have better crystalline quality than the one on Si(1 0 0), and a higher growth temperature was further confirmed favorable for the attainment of a periodic morphology. The results suggest that our growth method is feasible for the fabrication of ZnO film with periodic structure, which is promising for applications in new photonic devices.