Growth of ZnO nanostructures produced by MOCVD: A study of the effect of the substrate

Abstract

A study of the influence of the substrate mismatch on the growth of ZnO nanostructures is reported. ZnO nanostructures are deposited, by a simple catalyst-free metal-organic (MO)CVD approach, onto various substrates, such as SrTiO3(100), Si(100), and Al2O3(0001), using a novel diamine adduct of zinc bis-2 thenoyl-trifluoroacetonate (Zn(tta)2 · tmeda, Htta = CF3COCH2. COC4H3S, tmeda = N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine). Structural characterizations indicate that both morphology and crystalline structure of the obtained ZnO nanostructured systems strongly depend upon the crystalline mismatch with the substrate. Room-temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy is used to characterize the optical properties of the various nanostructures. The resulting cathodoluminescence spectra of all the samples show the presence of a strong and broad green band around 2.4 eV. © 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.