Thermal Degradation of Single Crystal Zinc Oxide and the Growth of Nanostructures

Abstract

Heat treatment of (0001) single crystal zinc oxide (ZnO) seems to degrade the surface morphology at high temperature. The degradation, however, does not suppress the growth of ZnO nanostructures on selective regions of the single crystal ZnO that have been sputtered with metallic zinc (Zn) and annealed at 800 °C. On the uncoated regions, no growth occurs but the presence of pits suggests material loss from the surface. The formation of ZnO nanostructures on the selective regions could be aided by the preferential loss of oxygen as well as zinc suboxides from the uncoated regions. Indirect evidence of the role of oxygen and zinc suboxides can be inferred from the formation of nickel zinc oxide Ni0.9Zn0.1O and nickel oxide NiO2 when Zn is replaced by Ni and annealed under similar conditions.