Synergistic effect of Indium and Gallium co-doping on growth behavior and physical properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods.
We synthesized ZnO nanorods (NRs) using simple hydrothermal method, with the simultaneous incorporation of gallium (Ga) and indium (In), in addition, investigated the co-doping effect on the morphology, microstructure, electronic structure, and electrical/optical properties. The growth behavior of the doped NRs was affected by the nuclei density and polarity of the (001) plane. The c-axis parameter of the co-doped NRs was similar to that of undoped NRs due to the compensated lattice distortion caused by the presence of dopants that are both larger (In3+) and smaller (Ga3+) than the host Zn2+cations. Red shifts in the ultraviolet emission peaks were observed in all doped NRs, owing to the combined effects of NR size, band gap renormalization, and the presence of stacking faults created by the dopant-induced lattice distortions. In addition, the NR/p-GaN diodes using co-doped NRs exhibited superior electrical conductivity compared to the other specimens due to the increase in the charge carrier density of NRs and the relatively large effective contact area of (001) planes. The simultaneous doping of In and Ga is therefore anticipated to provide a broader range of optical, physical, and electrical properties of ZnO NRs for a variety of opto-electronic applications.
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 440-746, Korea.
Jun Hyung
JH
Lim
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 440-746, Korea.
Seung Muk
SM
Lee
Department of Nanomaterials Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
Hyun-Suk
HS
Kim
Department of Nanomaterials Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Korea.
Hyun You
HY
Kim
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 305-338, Korea.
Jozeph
J
Park
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 440-746, Korea.
Seung-Boo
SB
Jung
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 440-746, Korea.
Geun Chul
GC
Park
Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia.
Jungho
J
Kim
School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi 440-746, Korea.
Jinho
J
Joo