Local synthesis and alignment of zinc oxide nanowires in aqueous solution using microheaters

Author

Lin, W.C. ; Lin, Y.C. ; Shih, C.J. ; Esashi, M. ; Seshia, A.A.

Author_Institution

Nanosci. Centre, Univ. of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

fYear

2012

fDate

Jan. 29 2012-Feb. 2 2012

Firstpage

452

Lastpage

455

Abstract

A bottom-up technique for synthesizing transversely suspended zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO NWs) under a zinc nitrate (Zn(NO₃)₂·6H₂O) and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA, (CH₂)₆·N₄) solution within a microfabricated device is reported in this paper. The device consists of a microheater which is used to initially create an oxidized ZnO seed layer. ZnO NWs are then locally synthesized by the microheater and electrodes embedded within the devices are used to drive electric field directed horizontal alignment of the nanowires within the device. The entire process is carried out at low temperature. This approach has the potential to considerably simplify the fabrication and assembly of ZnO nanowires on CMOS compatible substrates, allowing for the chemical synthesis to be carried out under near-ambient conditions by locally defining the conditions for nanowire growth on a silicon reactor chip.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; nanowires; semiconductor growth; zinc compounds; CMOS compatible substrates; aqueous solution; bottom up technique; chemical synthesis; hexamethylenetetramine; microheaters; nanowire growth; silicon reactor chip; zinc oxide nanowires; Educational institutions; Heating; Nanowires; Oxidation; Voltage measurement; Zinc oxide;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2012 IEEE 25th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Paris

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0324-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2012.6170223

Filename

6170223