Hierarchical ZnO nanostructures: growth and optical properties

Growth of hierarchical ZnO nanostructures composed of ZnO nanoneedles have been achieved via simple thermal evaporation process by using metallic zinc powder in the presence of oxygen at low temperature of 460 degrees C on silicon substrate without the use of any kind of metal catalysts or additives. It is confirmed by detailed structural studies that the as-grown hierarchical nanostructures are single crystalline with a wurtzite hexagonal phase and nanoneedles of these structures are grown along the c-axis in the [0001] direction. The Raman-scattering analysis substantiates a wurtzite hexagonal phase with a good crystal quality for the as-grown products. Room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) exhibits a strong UV emission at 380 nm confirming the excellent optical properties of as-synthesized hierarchical structures. A plausible growth mechanism is also proposed to clearly understand the growth process of the synthesized structures.