Electrophoretic deposition of ZnO nanostructures: Au nanoclusters onSi substrates induce self-assembled nanowire growth

SANDOVAL, CLAUDIA; MARIN, OSCAR; REAL, SILVINA; COMEDI, DAVID; TIRADO, MONICA

MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING B-SOLID STATE MATERIALS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2014 vol. 187 p. 21 - 25

0921-5107

The present work reports the self-assembled growth of ZnO nanowires on silicon substrate with nano-meter sized Au clusters using electrophoretic deposition technique at room temperature without asacrificial template. A colloidal suspension of ≈5 nm sized ZnO nanoparticles dispersed in 2-propanolwas used (nanoparticle bandgap of 3.47 eV as determined from absorbance measurements). The resultsshow that the Au nanoclusters on the silicon substrate induce the self-assembly of the ZnO nanoparticlesinto vertically aligned ZnO nanowires. This effect is tentatively explained as being due to increased elec-tric field intensities near the Au nanoclusters during the electrophoretic deposition. Photoluminescencemeasurements reveal the presence of quantum confined excitons and a relatively low concentrationof deep defects in the nanowires. The electric field guided growth of semiconductor nanostructures atroom temperature has great industrial potential as it minimizes production costs and enables the use ofsubstrate materials not withstanding high temperatures.