Growing arrays of tapered ZnO nanorods using a hydrothermal method for optoelectronics and photoelectrochemical devices

ZnO is an important large bandgap semiconductor with good chemical, mechanical, and particularly, optoelectronic properties. Due to its unique properties, ZnO is one of the most promising materials as a novel type of emitting device, e.g. polariton lasers. ZnO nanostructure fabrication processes range from expensive, time consuming methods such as Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) to simple and affordable ones like wet-chemical synthesis. We propose to use a hydrothermal synthesis to grow ordered arrays of ZnO nanorods. We can identify two main objectives in the project, the growth of free-standing, bi-tapered, ZnO nanorods, and the wet-chemical growth of doped ZnO nanorods. Both of these objectives can be fulfilled through a simple chemical method which does not require any high temperature/pressure or vacuum. Light-mater interaction will be noticeably enhanced in the fabricated nano-structure. This could be due to the improvement in photon life time inside the nanorod because of its purpose-built geometry.

Faculty Supervisor:

Pablo Bianucci

Student:

Partner:

Xi'an Jiaotong University

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Globalink Research Award