Shiwei Zhuang

Epitaxial growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires for bidirectional direct-current driven light-emitting diodes applications

We presented a comparative investigation on the morphological and structural properties of the produced ZnO nanowires (NWs) on c-Al2O3 substrates under different preparation conditions. The effects of a low-temperature nucleation layer, reaction pressure and light irradiation on the alignment, diameter and growth rate of ZnO NWs were evaluated in detail. It was found that the low-temperature nucleation layer acting as a supporting layer favored the formation of a transition layer featuring initially a rough surface and a high density of grain boundaries, guiding and facilitating the subsequent homoepitaxy of ZnO NWs grown on the top of developed (0001) facets of the new activation sites. The crystallinity and vertical alignment of epitaxial ZnO NWs were further optimized to achieve the best value, as the second growth stage was conducted with a higher reaction pressure and light irradiation, such that a relatively low full width at half-maximum (701 arcsec) of the rocking curve could be obtained. The thermodynamical growth kinetics of the produced ZnO NWs via the two-step growth process was also investigated by monitoring the morphology evolution at different growth stages. Coaxial n-ZnO/MgO/p-NiO-core/shell NWs heterostructured light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were then fabricated and characterized, and a unique tunability of the electroluminescence (EL) spectra depending on the bias polarities was observed. We studied in detail the bicolor EL characteristic of the bidirectional direct-current driven LEDs and tentatively proposed carrier tunneling and hole generation models to explain such interesting features.

Improvement of electroluminescence performance by integration of ZnO nanowires and single-crystalline films on ZnO/GaN heterojunction

Heterojunction light-emitting diodes based on n-ZnO nanowires/ZnO single-crystalline films/p-GaN structure have been demonstrated for an improved electroluminescence performance. A highly efficient ultraviolet emission was observed under forward bias. Compared with conventional n-ZnO/p-GaN structure, high internal quantum efficiency and light extraction efficiency were simultaneously considered in the proposed diode. In addition, the diode can work continuously for ∼10 h with only a slight degradation in harsh environments, indicating its good reliability and application prospect in the future. This route opens possibilities for the development of advanced nanoscale devices in which the advantages of ZnO single-crystalline films and nanostructures can be integrated together.

High-temperature continuous-wave laser realized in hollow microcavities

Recently, an urgent requirement of ultraviolet (UV) semiconductor laser with lower cost and higher performance has motivated our intensive research in zinc oxide (ZnO) material owing to its wide direct band gap and large exciton binding energy. Here, we demonstrate for the first time continuous-wave laser in electrically-pumped hollow polygonal microcavities based on epitaxial ZnO/MgO-core/shell nanowall networks structures, and whispering gallery type resonant modes are responsible for the lasing action. The laser diodes exhibit an ultralow threshold current density (0.27 A/cm2), two or three orders of magnitude smaller than other reported UV-light semiconductor laser diodes to our knowledge. More importantly, the continuous-current-driven diode can achieve lasing up to ~430 K, showing a good temperature tolerance. This study indicates that nano-size injection lasers can be made from epitaxial semiconductor microcavities, which is a considerable advance towards the realization of practical UV coherent light sources, facilitating the existing applications and suggesting new potentials.

Study on the optical properties of β-Ga2O3 films grown by MOCVD

Abstractβ-Ga2O3 films were grown on c-plane sapphire substrates at different substrate temperatures by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The effects of substrate temperature on transparence, optical band gap and photoluminescence of the films were studied systematically. With increasing the substrate temperature, the films structure was changed from amorphous to single orientation β-Ga2O3. The β-Ga2O3 films exhibited excellent optical transparency in the ultraviolet and visible regions. The ultraviolet-blue photoluminescence was observed at room temperature. The temperature-dependent photoluminescence was also carried out and the relative intensity of the blue emission with respect to the ultraviolet emission decreased with increasing the measured temperature. The origin of luminescence was discussed.

Excellent optical quality versus strong grain boundary effect in a double-layer ZnO structure

ZnO samples with a double-layer structure and top nanorod arrays on the bottom film layer were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition at a temperature range from 340 to 400 °C. The ZnO nanorods show excellent optical quality and no obvious defect related emission can be detected below 40 K except for I6 line and the surface bound exciton emission. The free exciton emission and its phonon replicas dominate the near band edge emission between 40 and 295 K. For the film layer, the temperature-dependent Hall measurements showed that the conduction region is degenerate. In the conduction region, the carrier mobility is mainly limited by the grain boundary effect, which can be weakened by thermal annealing. The conduction mechanism in this region before and after annealing can be fitted by a uniform and a non-uniform conduction model, respectively. The results indicate that grain boundary effects strongly limit the mobility and consume large amounts of carriers by the trap states. Furthermore, we propose a qualitative model to explain the expansion of the conduction regions by annealing. It reveals a mechanism for the improvement of electrical properties of polycrystalline thin films by annealing treatments.

Nanodots and microwires of ZrO2 grown on LaAlO3 by photo-assisted metal–organic chemical vapor deposition*

ZrO2 nanodots are successfully prepared on LaAlO3 (LAO) (100) substrates by photo-assisted metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). It is indicated that the sizes and densities of ZrO2 nanodots are controllable by modulating the growth temperature, oxygen partial pressure, and growth time. Meanwhile, the microwires are observed on the surfaces of substrates. It is found that there is an obvious competitive relationship between the nanodots and the microwires. In a growth temperature range from 500 ?C to 660 ?C, the microwires turn longest and widest at 600 ?C, but in contrast, the nanodots grow into the smallest diameter at 600 ?C. This phenomenon could be illustrated by the energy barrier, decomposition rate of Zr(tmhd)4, and mobility of atoms. In addition, growth time or oxygen partial pressure also affects the competitive relationship between the nanodots and the microwires. With increasing oxygen partial pressure from 451 Pa to 752 Pa, the microwires gradually grow larger while the nanodots become smaller. To further achieve the controllable growth, the coarsening effect of ZrO2 is modified by varying the growth time, and the experimental results show that the coarsening effect of microwires is higher than that of nanodots by increasing the growth time to quickly minimize ZrO2 energy density.