Comparative micro-photoluminescence investigation of ZnO hexagonal nanopillars and the seeding layer grown on 4H-SiC

► Comparative investigation of PL properties of ZnO seeding layer and nanopillars. ► TEM results show the presence of the seeding layer underneath nanopillars. ► Both are dominated by donor bound exciton emission without deep-level emission. ► Time-resolved PL shows identical bi-exponential decays, which are mainly determined by non-radiative recombinations.