Controlled Growth of Parallel Oriented ZnO Nanostructural Arrays on Ga2O3 Nanowires

摘要

Novel hierarchical ZnO-Ga2O3 nanostructures were fabricated via a two stage growth process. Nanowires of Ga2O3 were obtained in the first stage by the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism and used as the foundation for growth of self-assembled ordered arrays of ZnO nanostructures during the second stage by the vapor-solid mechanism. The resulting hierarchical nanostructures had a final morphology consisting of nanobrushes (NBs) with Ga2O3 as the core and ZnO as the branches self-assembling symmetrically in six equiangular directions around the core. Characterization of the NBs was performed by scanning and transmission electron microscopies, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The mechanism of formation is discussed together with potential applications, among which is the aligned growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanorods that are touted for optoelectronics. Advantages of this alignment method are lower temperature growth, reduced amount of thermally induced defects and absence of catalytic impurities.