Fabrication and Characterization of Highly Oriented N-Doped ZnO Nanorods by Selective Area Epitaxy

Abstract EN

High-quality nitrogen-doped ZnO nanorods have been selectively grown on patterned and bare ZnO templates by the combination of nanoimprint lithography and chemical vapor transport methods.

The grown nanorods exhibited uniformity in size and orientation as well as controllable density and surface-to-volume ratio.

The structural and optical properties of ZnO nanorods and the behaviour of N dopants have been investigated by means of the scanning electron microscope, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, and Raman scattering spectra.

The additional vibration modes observed in Raman spectra of N-doped ZnO nanorods provided solid evidence of N incorporation in ZnO nanorods.

The difference of excitonic emissions from ZnO nanorods with varied density and surface-to-volume ratio suggested the different spatial distribution of intrinsic defects.

It was found that the defects giving rise to acceptor-bound exciton (A0X) emission were most likely to distribute in the sidewall surface with nonpolar characteristics, while the donor bound exciton (D0X) emission related defects distributed uniformly in the near top polar surface.