Title : How to achieve vertically aligned AZO nanorods array by chemical bath deposition
Abstract:
Zinc oxide as an II-VI compound semiconductor has attracted considerable attention due to its applications in short wavelength optoelectronics devices owing to its wide direct band gap and large exciton binding energy at room temperature. ZnO probably has the richest family of nanostructures among materials. In particular, large surface area 1D nanostructures such as nanorods, nanowires and nanotubes have attracted wide applications in solar cells, photocatalysis, UV diodes and sensors. Nowadays, efforts have been made to improve the optical/electrical properties of ZnO through several methods including extrinsic doping with various elements. Among those, group III atoms such as Al and Ga are capable of reaching very high n-type conductivity without deterioration in optical transmittance. Unfortunately, doping may result in deterioration of the alignment of ZnO nanorods. In this project, a novel sol-gel technique “microwave-assisted hydrothermal method” was employed to grow ZnO nanorods at low deposition temperature of 90° C. The technique was optimized to achieve highly packed and vertically aligned ZnO nanorods array. The optimization includes several parameters such as the growing environment, precursors’ solution concentration and pH. In particular, the pH was found to be a crucial parameter to not only optimized but also tuning the shape of the ZnO nanostructures as evidenced by XRD, and SEM. Al-doped ZnO nanorods have been grown successfully by adding the Aluminum nitrates to the precursor solution. In the presentation, I will talk about how we can achieve highly doped and vertically aligned AZO nanorods array. Furthermore, the effect of doping on the structural and optoelectronic properties of nanorods will be discussed.
