Aqueous chemical growth and patterning of ZnO nanopillars on different substrate materials

Abstract

Abstract Aqueous chemical growth (ACG) is a low‐temperature approach that is only weakly influenced by the substrate and allows for the growth of ZnO nanopillars on various substrates. ACG is an efficient way to generate wafer‐scale and densely packed arrays of ZnO nanopillars even on polymer materials. Photoluminescence (PL) characterisation clearly shows a comparatively strong band‐edge luminescence even at room temperature that is accompanied with a rather weak visible luminescence in the yellow / orange spectral range. We introduce a rather simple postgrowth lithographic technique. Patterning of ZnO nanopillars even on layered conducting and flexible substrate materials using ACG as a low‐temperature growth technique is demonstrated. The economical potential for future applications and devices using ZnO nanopillar arrays is discussed. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)