Controlled growth of ZnO layers and nanowires using methane as reducing precursor. Issue 21 (25th July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huber, Florian; Puchinger, Anouk; Ahmad, Waleed; Madel, Manfred; Bauer, Sebastian; Thonke, Klaus
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials research. Volume 32:Issue 21(2017)
• Page Start: 4087
• Page End: 4094
• Publication Date: 2017-07-25
• Subjects: chemical vapor deposition (CVD), -- methane, -- II–VI; Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; 620.1105
• DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2017.280
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0884-2914

Abstract

Abstract: Abstract : Zinc oxide (ZnO) layers and nanowires were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using methane (CH4 ) as reducing agent. Compared to conventional CVD processes, which commonly use graphite powder to reduce the ZnO powder source material, this low-cost method allows an improved controllability of the growth processes. Specifically, the consumption of the source material–a commercially available ZnO powder–can be controlled in a very precise way by varying the flow of the reducing CH4 or the re-oxidizing O2 . Using this parameter, the growth can be switched between ZnO layers and nanostructures. High-quality ZnO layers have been grown on gallium nitride (GaN) substrates and on c -plane sapphire with an intermediate aluminum nitride (AlN) nucleation layer. By adjusting the growth conditions accordingly, ZnO nanowires were also grown with this method catalyst-free using a - and c -plane sapphire with ZnO nucleation layer as a substrate. The optical properties of the nanowires were investigated by low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) and compared to samples grown by conventional carbo-thermal CVD.