Effects of curing temperature on physical properties of hydrothermally-grown yttrium-doped ZnO nanorods

•YZnO nanorods were grown by hydrothermal synthesis techniques.•To improve the material properties of the nanorods, thermal curing was carried out.•After thermal curing, the c-axis preference of the YZnO nanorods was much enhanced.•In addition, metastable oxygen bonds were significantly decreased after curing.•Consequently, the thermal curing treatment effectively reduces deep-level emission.

We investigated the effects of the curing temperature on physical properties of hydrothermal synthesized yttrium-doped ZnO (YZO) nanorods. Compared to the as-grown sample, the c-axis preference (i.e., the peak intensity of x-ray diffraction at the (002) Bragg angle) was much enhanced after curing in vacuum at 200 °C. In addition, 200-°C-cured YZO nanorods showed a significant decrease in the number of metastable oxygen bonds. These resulted in both the increase in ultra-violet emission and the decrease in oxygen-related deep-level emission.