AbstractZnO, which exhibits a direct bandgap of 3.37 eV at room temperature with a large exciton binding energy of 60 meV,is of considerable technological importance because of its potential use in short-wavelength devices, such as ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes and laser diodes. The fabrication and application of 1-D ZnO nanostructures has attracted considerable interest in recent years. In this work, we produced single crystal nanowires of zinc oxide using a novel self-seeded growth using ultrasonic spray assisted chemical vapour deposition, in which a nanocrystalline seed layer was first deposited onto a glass substrate and the nanowires subsequently grown using a different precursor concentration and substrate temperature. The diameter of the nanowires is in the range of 20-80 nm and the length of the wires is as long as 10 μm. The single crystal nature of the nanowires was revealed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The formation of liquid droplets due to the reducing atmosphere and the higher temperature during the nanowire growth was found to be the key step of the ZnO nanowire formation.
A single crystal chemical vapour deposition diamond soft X-ray spectrometer