Catalyst free growth of ZnO nanorods by thermal evaporation method

In this work, we report catalyst free growth of ZnO nanorods on n-Si substrate by a low cost thermal evaporation method. The surface morphology, chemical composition and crystalline structure of ZnO nanorods have been determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy respectively. It is found that, the as –deposited ZnO seed layer reduces lattice mismatching between ZnO and Si from 40.3 to 0.28%, therefore enhances the subsequent growth and crystalline quality of ZnO nanorods on Si substrate. The present methodology is simple, cost effective and highly applicable for synthesis of ZnO nanorods for optoelectronics applications.