Effect of substrate temperature on structural and optical properties of ZnO nanostructures grown by thermal evaporation method

In this study, ZnO nanostructures were synthesized on SiO2/Si substrate by thermal evaporation method. The dependence of the crystalline phase, morphologies and chemical composition of the samples grown at different substrate temperatures were systematically studied. The XRD, Raman spectra, FTIR spectra and XPS results reveal the existence of Zn2SiO4 phase, beside the ZnO phase. The Zn2SiO4 phase dominates at high substrate temperature and vise versa. Under UV excitation at room temperature, the samples show three distinct emission bands namely UV (~380 nm), green (~525 nm), and NIR (730 nm). The increase of the PL intensity of the NIR emission with increasing substrate temperature, indicates the relation between this emission and the higher Zn2SiO4 phase content in the samples. Origin of the rarely observed NIR emission band is attributed to the energy transition from non-bridging oxygen hole centers of SiO2 to the Zni and Vo states of Zn2SiO4.