A simple growth route towards ZnO thin films and nanorods

Highly orientated ZnO thin films and the self-organized ZnO nanorods can be easily prepared by a simple chemical vapor deposition method using zinc acetate as a source material at the growth temperature of 180 and 320 °C, respectively. The ZnO thin films deposited on Si (100) substrate have good crystallite quality with the thickness of 490 nm after annealing in oxygen at 800 °C. The ZnO nanorods grown along the [0001] direction have average diameter of 40 nm with length up to 700 nm. The growth mechanism for ZnO nanorods can be explained by a vapor–solid (VS) mechanism. Photoluminescence (PL) properties of ZnO thin films and self-organized nanorods were investigated. The luminescence mechanism for green band emission was attributed to oxygen vacancies and the surface states related to oxygen vacancy played a significant role in PL spectra of ZnO nanorods.