Investigations on the growth and characterization of vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires by radio frequency magnetronsputtering

Undoped vertically aligned ZnO nanowires have been grown on silicon (111) substrates by the rf magnetron sputtering technique without metal catalyst. The diameter, length and density distributions of the nanowires have been analyzed with respect to the different growth durations. The tapering of the nanowires is observed for the growth duration of 120 min owing to the insufficient adatoms on the growth front. In the X-ray diffraction pattern, the dominant (002) peak with narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ZnO nanowires indicates the c-axis orientation and high crystalline nature with hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. The narrow FWHM of E2low and E2high phonon modes (1.4 and 9.1 cm−1) provide an additional evidence for the high crystalline and optical properties of the nanowires. The low temperature photoluminescence spectra are dominated by the green emission at∼2.28 eV induced by the electron transitions between shallow donor and acceptor energy levels. - Graphical abstract: Coalescence free vertically aligned ZnO nanowires have been grown on silicon (111) substrate by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. Highlights: ► ZnO nanowires have been grown by rf magnetron sputtering. ► A morphologically superior and coalescence free ZnO nanowires have been realized. ► ZnO nanowires exhibit hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. ► A dominant visible emission indicates the presence of point defects in nanowires