I-Cherng Chen

Electroluminescence from n-ZnO nanowires/p-GaN heterostructure light-emitting diodes

The investigation explores the fabrication and characteristics of ZnO nanowire (NW)/p-GaN/ZnO NW heterojunction light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Vertically aligned ZnO NWs arrays were grown on the p-GaN substrate. The n-p-n heterojunction LED was fabricated by combining indium tin oxide/glass substrate with the prepared ZnO NWs/p-GaN substrate. The symmetrical rectifying behavior demonstrates that the heterostructure herein was formed with two p-n junction diodes and connected back to back. The room-temperature electroluminescent emission peak at 415 nm was attributed to the band offset at the interface between n-ZnO and p-GaN and defect-related emission from ZnO and GaN. Finally, the photograph indicated the LED clearly emitted blue light.

Ultraviolet photodetectors with ZnO nanowires prepared on ZnO:Ga/glass templates

Vertically well-aligned ZnO nanowire ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors were fabricated by spin-on-glass technology on ZnO:Ga/glass templates. With 2V applied bias, it was found that dark current density of the fabricated device was only 2.0×10−7A∕cm2. It was also found that UV-to-visible rejection ratio and quantum efficiency of the fabricated ZnO nanowire photodetectors were more than 1000 and 12.6%, respectively.

Highly Sensitive ZnO Nanowire Acetone Vapor Sensor With Au Adsorption

In this study, the growth of high-density single-crystalline ZnO nanowires on patterned ZnO:Ga/ SiO2/Si templates was reported. We also adsorbed Au onto nanowire surfaces and fabricated ZnO nanowire acetone vapor sensors. With 200-ppm acetone vapor concentration, it was found that we could enhance the device sensitivities at 300deg C from 18.5% to 82.5% by Au adsorption. It was also found that measured responses at 300degC were around 52%, 61%, 71%, 77%, and 82% when the accumulative acetone vapor concentration reached 5, 10, 50, 100, and 200 ppm, respectively, for the ZnO nanowire sensor with Au adsorption.

Nanoscale mechanical characteristics of vertical ZnO nanowires grown on ZnO:Ga/glass templates

The mechanical properties of vertical single-crystal ZnO nanowires on ZnO:Ga/glass templates were characterized by nanoindentation experiments in this work. The results from x-ray diffraction and Raman spectra show good crystal quality for the ZnO nanowires. The buckling loads were found to be 1465 and 215 μN for ZnO nanowires of 100 and 30 nm diameters, respectively. When the fixed‐fixed column mode was used, it was found that the Young’s modulus values of the ZnO nanowires of 100 and 30 nm diameters were 117 and 232 GPa, while the critical buckling strains were 0.62% and 0.35%, respectively. On the other hand, when we employed the fixed‐pinned column mode, it can be seen that the Young’s modulus values were 229 and 454 GPa, while the critical buckling strains were 0.32% and 0.18%, respectively. Buckling behaviour of the ZnO nanowires was significantly predicted by the Euler buckling model in this work.

Vertical single-crystal ZnO nanowires grown on ZnO:Ga/glass templates

Vertical single-crystal ZnO nanowires with uniform diameter and uniform length were selectively grown on ZnO:Ga/glass templates at 600/spl deg/C by a self-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid process without any metal catalyst. It was found that the ZnO nanowires are grown preferred oriented in the [002] direction with a small X-ray diffraction full-width half-maximum. Photoluminescence, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements also confirmed good crystal quality of our ZnO nanowires. Field emitters using these ZnO nanowires were also fabricated. It was found that threshold field of the fabricated field emitters was 14 V//spl mu/m. With an applied electric field of 24 V//spl mu/m, it was found that the emission current density was around 0.1 mA/cm/sup 2/.

ZnO Nanowire-Based Oxygen Gas Sensor

We report growth of vertically well-aligned ZnO nanowires on ZnO:Ga/glass templates and the fabrication of resistive ZnO nanowire-based oxygen gas sensor. It was found that the ZnO nanowires are grown preferred oriented in the (002) direction with a small X-ray diffraction full-width-half-maximum. From high resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and micro-Raman measurements, it was found that the ZnO nanowires prepared in this study are single crystalline with good crystal quality. It was also found that measured sample resistance increased logarithmically as the oxygen gas pressure in the chamber was increased. Such a relationship suggests that the device is potentially useful for resistive oxygen gas sensing at room temperature.

Well-Aligned, Vertically Al-Doped ZnO Nanowires Synthesized on ZnO : Ga ∕ Glass Templates

High-density, single-crystal, vertically aligned, Al-doped ZnO nanowires with an Al content of 1.05 atom % were synthesized on ZnO:Ga/glass templates at 550°C. Although introducing Al did not change the physical dimensions of the ZnO nanowires, the lattice constant increased by 0.25% and the optical properties of the ZnO nanowires were degraded. However, the experimental results also showed that the threshold emission field can be significantly decreased from 16 to 10 V/μm, and the work function, Φ, can also be reduced from 5.3 to 3.39 eV by introducing Al atoms into the ZnO nanowires.

Two-step oxygen injection process for growing ZnO nanorods

Uniform hexagonal prismatic zinc oxide rods were grown over the entire alumina substrate at 550 °C using a two-step oxygen injection process, whether the substrates were coated with a catalyst or not. X-ray diffraction showed that all of the depositions exhibited a preferred orientation in the (002) plane. The influence of oxygen concentration was investigated by changing the oxygen flow rate. Oxygen concentration affected the size of ZnO nanorods, especially the diameter. The ZnO nanorods were further checked using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, and room-temperature ultraviolet lasing. The results showed that the rods were single crystals and had excellent optical properties. By observing the growth process, we found that the diameter increased slowly, but the longitudinal growth rate was very high. The growth of ZnO nanorods revealed that the uniform hexagonal prismatic ZnO nanorods were synthesized through vapor deposition growth and a self-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process.

Low-temperature growth of ZnO nanowires

ZnO nanowires with diameters of 40-200 nm were grown with a gold catalyst in bulk quantities on alumina substrates and sapphire substrates. This synthesis procedure was achieved by heating a 1: I mixture of ZnO and Zn powder to 500 °C with trace water vapor as an oxidizer. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the nanowires were in the pure wurtzite phase. Photoluminescence spectroscopy showed two peaks: one was a strong ultraviolet emission at around 380 nm, which corresponds to the near-band-edge emission; the other was a weak near-infrared emission around 750 nm, which indicates a low concentration of oxygen vacancy. Moreover, we observed that the Zn/Au alloy droplets appeared on the tips of ZnO nanowires. As a consequence, we can select areas to grow ZnO nanowires by patterning the thin metal film on the substrates. These findings prove that the low-temperature growth mechanism is via vapor-liquid-solid rather than vapor transport deposition or vapor supersaturation (vapor-solid) mechanism. On the basis of the site-specific growth and the low-temperature requirement developed from this work, the synthesis of ZnO is compatible to microelectric machining system processing.

Tin oxide (SnOX) carbon monoxide sensor fabricated by thick-film methods

Abstract A new way to fabricate thick-film semiconductor-type tin oxide (SnOx) carbon monoxide sensors is reported in this paper. The sensing material is made by metallo-organic decomposition and is composed of calcium oxide- and niobium oxide-doped tin oxide with platinum as a catalyst; the electrodes and the heater are made by screen printing. Sensing measurements are done by cycling the sensor temperature with high and low heating powers. The CO response curve is almost linear at CO concentrations below 400 ppm. The sensor can detect CO concentrations below 30 ppm. The CO response with time, CO sensitivity, operation temperatures, power consumption, reliability of the sensor and also the selectivity of the sensor to various gases have been investigated.