Controllable fabrication of patterned ZnO nanorod arrays: investigations into the impacts on their morphology

Fabricating ZnO nanorod arrays with precisely controlled morphology, alignment, and density is highly desirable but rather challenging. On the other hand, understanding the parameters that affect their final morphology and the growth mechanisms is significant to integrate such patterned ZnO nanorod arrays in various applications. Therefore, ZnO nanorod arrays with different density and morphology were fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL) combined with the hydrothermal methods in this work. The influences of prepatterned geometry and the growth parameters such as seed layer, the precursor concentration, and the growth time on their final morphology were investigated. Under the coactions of EBL and the subsequent hydrothermal growth, ZnO nanorod arrays with precisely controlled density, position and morphology were achieved. The growth mechanism was also discussed in detail for the ZnO nanorod arrays which confined by the aperture with different size.