Site-specific growth to control ZnO nanorods density and related field emission properties

Abstract

Uniformly distributed ZnO nanorods with two different densities were demonstrated using the standard submicron semiconductor process. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and UV-lithography were used to predefine growth sites and to grow ZnO nanorods at 600 degrees C. Integrated and local field emission (FE) experiments were also performed in the same substrate, and both involved the F-N vacuum tunneling mechanism. A medium density of high aspect ratio nanorods shows better FE performance due to the screening effect. The ability to control the growth-site demonstrated the possibility of the integration and the better field emission properties of nanodevices by ZnO on silicon substrate. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.