Anisha Gokarna

Highly crystalline urchin-like structures made of ultra-thin zinc oxide nanowires

We report the synthesis of ultra-thin, monocrystalline, highly luminescent ZnO nanowires (NWs) on polystyrene (PS) beads as templates. The synthesis of these NWs on PS beads was conducted by the chemical bath deposition technique in the absence of any catalysts or additives. They have an average diameter of 15 nm (depending on the concentration of the solution) and an average length of 500 nm. Structural characterization reveals that these NWs are monocrystalline, with a hexagonal phase and grow along the [0001] direction. Photoluminescence measurements of these unannealed, ultra-thin NWs exhibit a strong ultra-violet emission at room temperature with an internal quantum efficiency of 23%. We show that the concentration of the aqueous solution plays a key role in controlling the size of the NWs.

Integrated Freestanding Two-dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

This paper reports on the integration of freestanding transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Monolayer (1-L) MoS2 , WS2 , and WSe2 as representative TMDs are transferred on ZnO nanorods (NRs), used here as nanostructured substrates. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of 1-L TMDs on NRs show a giant PL intensity enhancement, compared with those of 1-L TMDs on SiO2 . The strong increases in Raman and PL intensities, along with the characteristic peak shifts, confirm the absence of stress in the TMDs on NRs. In depth analysis of the PL emission also reveals that the ratio between the exciton and trion peak intensity is almost not modified after transfer. The latter shows that the effect of charge transfer between the 1-L TMDs and ZnO NRs is here negligible. Furthermore, confocal PL and Raman spectroscopy reveal a fairly consistent distribution of PL and Raman intensities. These observations are in agreement with a very limited points contact between the support and the 1-L TMDs. The entire process reported here is scalable and may pave the way for the development of very efficient ultrathin optoelectronics.

Topology assisted self-organization of colloidal nanoparticles: application to 2D large-scale nanomastering

Summary Our aim was to elaborate a novel method for fully controllable large-scale nanopatterning. We investigated the influence of the surface topology, i.e., a pre-pattern of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) posts, on the self-organization of polystyrene beads (PS) dispersed over a large surface. Depending on the post size and spacing, long-range ordering of self-organized polystyrene beads is observed wherein guide posts were used leading to single crystal structure. Topology assisted self-organization has proved to be one of the solutions to obtain large-scale ordering. Besides post size and spacing, the colloidal concentration and the nature of solvent were found to have a significant effect on the self-organization of the PS beads. Scanning electron microscope and associated Fourier transform analysis were used to characterize the morphology of the ordered surfaces. Finally, the production of silicon molds is demonstrated by using the beads as a template for dry etching.

ZnO top-down structuring for UV photonic applications(Conference Presentation)

ZnO is a promising II-VI semiconductor for UV applications although p-type ZnO is not yet available. Nevertheless it remains an alternative material for GaN and its alloy InGaN. For example, the exciton binding energy of ZnO (60 meV) is higher than that of GaN (21 meV). This allows ZnO to emit light at ambient temperature and interestingly, it increases the device brightness. Besides promising intrinsic properties, light-matter control and especially in the UV relies on the ability of material nanostructuring. We present here two different kinds of top-down process in order to nanostructure ZnO. The first one relies on Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) combined with a lift-off process and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactive ion etching (RIE). Nickel (Ni) has been used as a mask in order to have a high selectivity in the presence of C2F6 and O2 ionized gases. The etching rate used was 26nm/s in order to avoid roughness. The second process is called Direct Holographic Patterning (DHP). ZnO thin films have been holographicaly patterned for the first time by direct photodissolution in NaCl solution using laser interference lithography. Application of an electrical potential strongly increases the dissolution rate and decreases the pattern formation time. Both processes will be discussed in terms of their respective potential for light confinement in the UV.

Highly efficient excitonic emission of CBD grown ZnO micropods (Presentation Recording)

Due to its wide direct band gap and large exciton binding energy allowing for efficient excitonic emission at room temperature, ZnO has attracted attention as a luminescent material in various applications such as UV-light emitting diodes, chemical sensors and solar cells. While low-cost growth techniques, such as chemical bath deposition (CBD), of ZnO thin films and nanostructures have been already reported; nevertheless, ZnO thin films and nanostructures grown by costly techniques, such as metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy, still present the most interesting properties in terms of crystallinity and internal quantum efficiency. In this work, we report on highly efficient and highly crystalline ZnO micropods grown by CBD at a low temperature (< 90°C). XRD and low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) investigations on as-grown ZnO micropods revealed a highly crystalline ZnO structure and a strong UV excitonic emission with internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 10% at room temperature. Thermal annealing at 900°C of the as-grown ZnO micropods leads to further enhancement in their structural and optical properties. Low-temperature PL measurements on annealed ZnO micropods showed the presence of phonon replicas, which was not the case for as-grown samples. The appearance of phonon replicas provides a strong proof of the improved crystal quality of annealed ZnO micropods. Most importantly, low-temperature PL reveals an improved IQE of 15% in the excitonic emission of ZnO micropods. The ZnO micropods IQE reported here are comparable to IQEs reported on ZnO structures obtained by costly and more complex growth techniques. These results are of great interest demonstrating that high quality ZnO microstructures can be obtained at low temperatures using a low-cost CBD growth technique.