Effect of Oxygen Admittance Temperature on the Growth of ZnO Microcrystals by Thermal Evaporation Technique

Hexagonally well-faceted microcrystals of ZnO have been grown by thermal evaporation of Zn powder in oxygen ambient at 700 C under atmospheric pressure. It has been observed that the properties (size and quality) of ZnO microcrystals have a strong dependence on the reactor temperature at which the oxygen gas is admitted into the growth zone. The microcrystals grown with oxygen admittance at 450 C have a length of 1 μm and a diameter of 0.75 μm while that grown with oxygen admittance at 600 C have a length of 1.5-2 μm and a diameter of 1 μm. Room temperature photoluminescence spectra show a ultraviolet (UV) emission peak at 385 nm with a green band emission at around 500 nm. The UV-to-green band emission ratio for the microcrystals grown with oxygen admittance at 450 C is observed to be 1.25 and the ratio decreases to 0.45 for the sample grown with oxygen admittance at 600 C.