Morphology dependence of ZnO nanorod luminescence

Abstract

The optical properties of high-quality zinc oxide nanorods grown by the self-catalytic CVD method are considered. The effect of irradiation of an array of nanorods by a low-energy electron beam at 85 K on UV luminescence has been demonstrated. It is shown that such irradiation does not change the spectra form at both room and liquid nitrogen temperatures and only affects the emission intensity. The pronounced difference in cathodoluminescence spectra for nanorods with different morphology was observed at 85 K. However, the deconvolution of spectra using Gaussian curve fitting shows that in spite of noticeable difference, all spectra consist of the same set of emission bands similar to those previously observed in ZnO. The nanorod geometry only affects the relative contribution of the emission bands to the full spectrum. The possible nature of emission bands measured in ZnO nanorods is discussed.