Synthesis of ZnO nanowire arrays and their photoluminescence property

Well-aligned ZnO nanowire arrays were directly fabricated on the photoresist coated Si substrates instead of general metal catalyst coated substrate or some special buffer layers. An important feature of this catalyst-free growth process is that the immiscibility of the zinc oxide-carbon system can provide a thermodynamic driving force for the radial growth of one-dimensional (1D) nanowire arrays. In addition, the influence of thickness of the photoresist on the morphology and photoluminescence (PL) properties of the ZnO nanowire arrays was investigated in detail. It is found that thicker photoresist is contributed to the growth of well-aligned ZnO nanowire arrays with good ultraviolet performance. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.