| Zinc oxide (ZnO) represents an important semiconductor material due to its wideband gap (3.37 eV at room temperature), large exciton binding energy (60 meV), high optical gain, and luminescence as well as piezoelectric properties [1]. From the 1960s, ZnO thin films have been extensively studied because of their applications as sensors, transducers and catalysts [2]. Since a few decades, one-dimensional nanostructures have become the focus point in nanoscience and nanotechnology.; Nanostructures are considered to have unique physical, chemical, catalytic and optical properties that are profoundly different from their bulk counterparts. Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991, a string of research activities led to the growth and characterization of nanostructures of various materials including semiconductors such as Si, Ge and also compound semiconductors such as InP, GaAs, GaN and ZnO. ZnO is a versatile material and has shown potential for the synthesis of various types of nanostructures such as nanocombs, nanorings, nanohelices/nanosprings, nanobelts, nanowires and nanocages under specific growth conditions and probably has the richest family of nanostructures among all materials, both in structure and properties.; This dissertation presents the synthesis, characterization and luminescence properties of ZnO nanostructures with the development of a PVD system. The nanostructures of ZnO are synthesized on various kinds of substrates such as Silicon, Sapphire and Alumina. We have synthesized a large family of nanostructures such as nanowires, nanorods, nanobelts, aligned nanorods, nanosheets, nanospheres, nanocombs, microspheres, hexagons etc. The nanostructures are then characterized by SEM, EDX, TEM, HRTEM, XRD, Raman Spectroscopy, PL and CL. From the characterization of the materials, we observed that these nanostructures are of good crystalline quality. PL and CL spectra reveal that all the nanostructures emit a ∼380 nm (UV) usually called the near band edge emission and a broad green band related to the defects and surface states at about 500 nm. Ultra-fine nanowires/belts show band edge emission of about 367 nm, with a blue shift of 124 meV relative to the other structures (380 nm). This dissertation gives an overview of the optical properties of ZnO nanostructures, in addition to the issues such as controlled growth, band-gap engineering, synthesis and characterization of these nanostructures. |
