Highly oriented ZnO nanorod arrays by a novel Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition process

Strongly c-axis oriented ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on Si(100) by plasma enhanced-chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) starting from two volatile bis(ketoiminato) zinc(II) compounds Zn[(R')NC(CH3)=C(H)C(CH3)=O]2, with R'= -(CH2)xOCH3 (x = 2, 3). A systematic investigation of process parameters enabled us to obtain the selective formation of ZnO nanorods with tailored features, and provided an important insight into their growth mechanism. The morphology, structure, and composition of the synthesized ZnO nanosystems were thoroughly analyzed by field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Photoluminescence (PL) measurements were carried out to gain information on the optical properties. Specifically, one-dimensional (1D) ZnO architectures could be grown on Si(100) substrates at temperatures as low as 200-300 °C and radio frequency (RF)-power values of 20 W, provided that a sufficiently highmass supply to the growth surface was maintained. To the best of our knowledge, the present work reports the mildest preparation conditions ever appeared in the literature for the PE-CVDof ZnO nanorods, a key result in view of potential large-scale technological applications.