Selective growth and characterization of ZnO nanorods assembled a hexagonal pattern on H₂-decomposed GaN epilayer

Abstract

This paper reported a simple and effective method for fabricating and patterning highly ordered ZnO nanorod arrays on H₂-decomposed GaN epilayer via hydrothermal route. The edge of pattern, which has been decomposed by H₂ flow, provides appropriate nucleation sites for the selective-growth of aligned ZnO nanorods. The density of ZnO nanorod arrays assembled the hexagonal pattern can be tuned by varying the solution concentrations, growth time and reaction temperatures. The results have demonstrated that the ZnO nanorods are highly uniform in diameter and height with perfect alignment and are epitaxially grown along [0001] direction. This work provides a novel and accessible route to prepare oriented and aligned ZnO nanorod arrays pattern. And the aligned ZnO nanorods form an ideal hexagonal pattern that might be used in many potential applications of ZnO nanomaterials.

Keywords

ZnO nanorod / GaN epilayer / hexagonal pattern / hydrothermal

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Starting Research Fund from the Jianghan University (Nos. 2010014 and 2012017), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61006046 and 51002058).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg