Selective growth of vertically-aligned ZnO nano-needles

Vertically-aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-needles have been selectively grown on the Si (100) substrates using chemical vapor transport and condensation method without metal catalyst. The selective nucleation of nano-needles was achieved by the controlled treatment of substrate surface using zinc acetate aqueous solution. The nano-needles were selectively grown on the zinc acetate treated area, while the nano-tetrapod structures were formed on the non-treated area. The nano-needles have uniform tip-diameter and length, about 10 nm and 2-3 microm, respectively. The angle of the ZnO nano-needles from the substrate was 90 +/- 0.2 degrees. The structural and optical properties of nano-needles and nanotetrapod structures were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and photoluminescence (PL). The results showed that ZnO nano-needles grow along the c-axis of the crystal plane due to the c-oriented ZnO nanoseeds formed by zinc acetate treatment. The nano-needles have strong ultraviolet emission peak of 3.29 eV with green emission of 2.3 eV at room temperature. This selective growth technique of vertical nano-needles using aqueous solution method has potential applications in the field emission devices or optoelectronic devices hybridized with silicon based electronic devices.