Abstract
Unlike conventional bulk or film materials, one-dimensional (1D) semiconducting zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures exhibit excellent photoelectric properties including ultrahigh intrinsic photoelectric gain, multiple light confinement, and subwavelength size effects. Compared with polycrystalline thin films, nanowires usually have high phase purity, no grain boundaries, and long-distance order, making them attractive for carrier transport in advanced optoelectronic devices. The properties of one-dimensional nanowires—such as strong optical absorption, light emission, and photoconductive gain—could improve the performance of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), photodetectors, solar cells, nanogenerators, field-effect transistors, and sensors. For example, ZnO nanowires behave as carrier transport channels in photoelectric devices, decreasing the loss of the light-generated carrier. The performance of LEDs and photoelectric detectors based on nanowires can be improved compared with that of devices based on polycrystalline thin films. This article reviews the fabrication methods of 1D ZnO nanostructures—including chemical vapor deposition, hydrothermal reaction, and electrochemical deposition—and the influence of the growth parameters on the growth rate and morphology. Important applications of 1D ZnO nanostructures in optoelectronic devices are described. Several approaches to improve the performance of 1D ZnO-based devices, including surface passivation, localized surface plasmons, and the piezo-phototronic effect, are summarized.
Highlights
The small size of one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials leads to unique electrical, mechanical, chemical, and optical properties that are attractive for application in nanoscience and nanotechnology.Crystals 2018, 8, 223; doi:10.3390/cryst8050223 www.mdpi.com/journal/crystalsIn particular, 1D zinc oxide (ZnO) is a representative nanomaterial with excellent properties, such as ultrahigh intrinsic photoelectric gain and multiple array light confinement
The review mainly focuses on the effect of growth conditions on 1D ZnO nanostructures and achievements of 1D ZnO-based photodetectors and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and, in particular, the promising approaches to improve the performance of LEDs and photodetectors
Low-dimensional ZnO nanomaterials could be suitable for use in advanced optoelectronic devices, such as LEDs and photodetectors, because of their favorable properties
Summary
The small size of one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials leads to unique electrical, mechanical, chemical, and optical properties that are attractive for application in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Various fabrication methods of 1D ZnO nanomaterials have been developed, such as vapor transport [5], hydrothermal reaction [8,11,16,22], electrodeposition [12,23], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [24,25], molecular beam epitaxy [26], and pulsed laser deposition [27] These methods can be used to obtain samples on substrates such as Si, quartz, and sapphire. New devices based on 1D ZnO nanomaterials are constantly being developed, such as room-temperature lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), photodetectors, sensors, and transistors. The recent achievements of ZnO-based photodetectors and LEDs with different device structures and promising approaches to improve the performance of LEDs and photodetectors—including surface passivation, localized surface plasmons resonance (LSPR), and the piezo-phototronic effect—are discussed
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