Enhanced structural and magnetic properties of carbon-assisted ZnO nanorod arrays on (100) Si substrate

We have fabricated as-grown ZnO nanorods (NRs) and carbon-assisted NRs arrays on semi-insulating (100)-oriented Si substrates. We compared the structural and magnetic properties of them. HRTEM (High Resolution Transmission Microscopy), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy dispersive X-ray (EDS) revealed that the as-grown ZnO NRs and carbon-assisted ZnO NRs were single crystals with a hexagonal wurtzite structure, and grew with a c-axis orientation perpendicular to the Si substrate. These measurements show that the carbon-assisted ZnO NRs were better synthesized vertically on a Si substrate compared to the as-grown ZnO NRs. Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements showed that defect concentration of the carbon-assisted ZnO NRs was remarkably reduced compared to the as-grown ZnO NRs. The reduced defect concentration of the carbon-assisted ZnO demonstrates the possible improvement in the performance of photovoltaic nanodevices based on ZnO like materials. This method can be applied to the fabrication of well-aligned ZnO nanorod used widely in optoelectronic devices.