Crystallographically oriented porous ZnO nanostructures with visible-blind photoresponse: Controlling the growth and optical properties

Abstract

We have grown catalyst-free crystallographically oriented porous ZnO nanostructures by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. The deposition was performed in two stages for each sample. In the first stage, self-seeding of ZnO was performed on the quartz substrate, and the angle of deposition (seeding-angle) was varied. Thus, the growth of seeds is different here. In the second stage, the deposition was performed at a glancing angle (at 85°) for the fixed duration of time to grow the nanostructures. These PLD-grown nanostructures acquire highly oriented wurtzite structure. We find that the seeding-angle during the first stage is the determining deposition parameter which influences the growth and other properties of these nanostructures in a controllable manner. The variation in seeding-angle systematically tunes the crystallographic orientation and porosity, which in turn influences the visible-blindness and ultraviolet (UV) photoresponse of these nanonetworks. Here we report the growth of completely defect-free crystallographically oriented nanostructures with necessary porosity for application in visible-blind UV photodetection. © 2019