One-Step Growth of Ge doped ZnO Tubes by Thermal Evaporation

Abstract

In this paper we report a simple thermal evaporation technique (horizontal tube furnace) to grow the bulk‐quantity of germanium (Ge) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) tubes on the Si substrate by using one‐step thermal evaporation of a mixed powder of Ge and ZnO. The microstructure and optical properties of the Ge doped ZnO tubes have been investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX), X‐ray diffraction, photoluminescence (PL) spectrometer and Raman spectrometer. The investigation of structural properties indicated that the structures consist of bulk quantities of cylindrical rod and tube with diameter around 1micron. EDX reveals that the tube structures have Ge, Zn and O2 compositions and XRD analysis indicated the product is mainly composed of Ge, zinc germanium oxide (Zn2GeO4) and small proportion of ZnO. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum shows broad emission peaks around 400 nm, opening up a route to potential applications in future optoelectronic devices. Raman measurement also measured at room temperature for these tubes.