Enhancement of UV photoluminescence in ZnO tubes grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD)

We have synthesized ZnO tubes, without any catalyst, on Al2O3 (001) substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) at different growth temperatures, pressures and Zn-O ratios. The results confirm that the growth temperature, reactor pressure and Zn-O ratio play important roles in the formation of hexagonal ZnO tubes. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images indicated that, at a growth temperature of 500 °C, reactor pressure of 75 Torr and Zn-O ratio of 10/75 are an appropriate condition to obtain hexagonal and well-aligned ZnO tubes. High-resolution, double crystal XRD analysis shows a symmetric ω-scan rocking curve, with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 1.1°. It confirms the ZnO tubes have highly c-axis orientation on Al2O3 substrate. Subsequently, room temperature photoluminescence (PL) studies confirm that the enhancement of UV emissions from ZnO tubes is due to increasing Zn-O ratios.