Crystallographically Oriented Nanorods and Nanowires of RF-Magnetron-Sputtered Zinc Oxide

Abstract

The formation of nanoscaled one-dimensional structure constituting the thin films of ZnO via a RF magnetron sputtering process is demonstrated. A detailed analysis of these films has been carried out by exploiting the techniques of ellipsometry, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), high-resolution TEM, and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The importance of substrate materials due to the nanomorphologies as rods and wires on the substrates as amorphous quartz and silicon, respectively, has been elucidated. It has been exhibited that these fascinating nano-objects (rods, wires) are grown directionally alongc-axis of hexagonal lattice of ZnO. The nucleation and growth mechanisms of these nano-objects have been discussed to interpret the present results.