Growth and characterization of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods grown on porous silicon: Effect of precursor concentration

•Well-aligned ZnO nanorods were fabricated by CBD process on PS substrate.•The influence of the precursor concentration was studied on ZnO nanorods.•ZnO nanorods grew vertically from the substrate and along the c-axis.•PL spectrum of ZnO nanorods revealed high intense UV emission peak at 390 nm.

Vertically aligned ZnO nanorods were successfully synthesized on porous silicon (PS) substrates by chemical bath deposition method at low temperature. The effect of precursor concentration on the growth of ZnO nanorods were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), low and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), photoluminescence (PL), and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD results reveal that all the as-grown ZnO nanorod arrays grew preferentially oriented along the c-axis with a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The FESEM images show that the ZnO nanorods grown perpendicular to the PS substrates had diameters and lengths ranging from 13 nm to 69 nm and from 85 nm to 208 nm, respectively. The low-resolution TEM image indicates that the ZnO nanorod arrays had a uniform diameter along their whole length and a smooth surface. PL and Raman analyses reveal that the aligned ZnO nanorods exhibited a sharp ultraviolet peak and high E2 (high) at around 390 nm and 433.8 cm−1, respectively. Furthermore, the ZnO nanorods grew vertically under 0.050 M precursor concentration, resulting in a high structural and optical quality. These ZnO nanorods can be potentially used for fabricating nanoelectronic and nano-optical devices.