Synthesis and characterization of well-aligned catalyst-free phosphorus-doped ZnO nanowires

Abstract

Highly crystalline P-doped ZnO nanowires were grown by physical vapour transport technique without presence of any catalysts. Grown nanowires were well aligned and had good crystallinity with evolution of preferred orientation (0 0 2). Both EDX and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) results revealed that phosphorus atoms were incorporated in the ZnO nanowires with the content of less than 1%. The XRD results confirmed an increase in lattice spacing which is attributed to substitution of P on oxygen sites. The photoluminescence spectra of grown nanowires showed a strong emission peak at 3.248 eV with a shoulder at 3.184 eV, corresponding with FA (free electron to acceptor) and DAP (donor-acceptor pair) levels of P-doped ZnO. The lattice spacing from HRTEM agrees with the achieved results from XRD measurement. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.