Synthesis and characterization of aligned ZnO/MgO core–shell
nanorod arrays on ITO substrate
M. Gao
•
J. H. Yang
•
L. L. Yang
•
Y. J. Zhang
•
H. L. Liu
•
H. G. Fan
•
J. H. Lang
•
Y. R. Sui
•
B. Feng
•
Y. F. Sun
•
Z. Q. Zhang
•
H. Song
Received: 24 December 2012 / Accepted: 21 March 2013 / Published online: 9 April 2013
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract ZnO/MgO core–shell nanorod arrays were
synthesized successfully by the hydrothermal growth
method. Photoluminescence (PL) emission from the
nanorods showed remarkable enhancement after the
growth of the MgO layer. The ZnO/MgO core–shell
nanorods are type-I heterostructures, the electrons and
holes of which are both confined in the core of the
nanorods, as a result, leading to the increase of the
photoluminescence intensity in this system. In addition,
another reason for the enhancement of PL emission was
the deposition of MgO shell suppression of surface
defects. In addition, the activation energy (E
a
)of
63 meV in the ZnO/MgO core–shell nanorods was
obtained from temperature-dependent PL.
1 Introduction
ZnO is a wide-bandgap (3.37 eV) semiconducting
material with good chemical stability, making it useful in
solar cells, light emitting diodes, gas sensing devices and
transistors [1–3]. In the field of nanotechnology the
synthesis of controllable structures is crucial for the
development of functional devices. Recent interest in the
nanostructures has boosted the design of nanoscale
materials with specific morphologies for novel device
applications, since it is known that physical and chemical
properties of materials are strongly influenced by their
size and shape [4, 5]. Recently, many ZnO nanorod
devices have been reported to be fabricated by the facile
and low-temperature (below 100 °C) hydrothermal
methods [6, 7]. But this low-temperature chemical
growth method will introduce high defect density, it may
be disadvantageous to passivate the surface of the
nanorods to control the surface reactivity and limit the
electronic influence of surface defects [8]. It is reported
that a common technique to control and enhance the
properties of nanostructures is to create core–shell het-
erostructures [9, 10]. As a typical wide-bandgap insula-
tor, MgO has drawn special attention due to its important
use as a passivation layer in the study of chemical
sensors, optical devices and superconductor products [11,
12]. Previously, MgO as a shell onto a metal oxide
semiconducting core was developed using high-temper-
ature synthesis routes [13]. But these methods are
incompatible with low-cost, easily reproducible and large
industrial scale fabrication of products.
Here we report a low-temperature (with the entire syn-
thesis being possible under 100 °C), simple and efficient
two-step fabrication process to fabricate ZnO nanorods
inner- and MgO outer-shell layers. We comparatively
M. Gao B. Feng Y. F. Sun H. Song
Key Laboratory of Excited State Processes, Changchun Institute
of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, South Nanhu Street No. 3888, Changchun 130033,
People’s Republic of China
M. Gao B. Feng Y. F. Sun
Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanlihe
Road No. 52, Beijing 100049, People’s Republic of China
M. Gao J. H. Yang (&) L. L. Yang
Y. J. Zhang H. L. Liu H. G. Fan J. H. Lang
Y. R. Sui B. Feng Y. F. Sun Z. Q. Zhang
Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry
of the Ministry of Education, Institute of Condensed State
Physics, Jilin Normal University, Haifeng Street No. 1301,
Siping 136000, People’s Republic of China
e-mail: jhyang1@jlnu.edu.cn
123
Appl. Phys. B (2013) 112:539–545
DOI 10.1007/s00340-013-5436-z