Ultra-violet Sensing Characteristic and Field Emission Properties of Vertically Aligned Aluminum Doped Zinc Oxide Nanorod Arrays

Abstract

Ultra‐violet (UV) sensing behavior and field emission characteristic have been investigated on vertically aligned aluminum (Al) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays prepared using sol‐gel immersion method. Uniform and high coverage density of ZnO nanorod arrays have been succesfully deposited on seeded‐catalyst coated substrates. The synthesized nanorods have diameter sizes between 50 nm to 150 nm. The XRD spectra show Al doped ZnO nanorod array has high crystallinity properties with the dominancy of crystal growth along (002) plane or c‐axis. UV photoresponse measurement indicates that Al doped ZnO nanorod array sensitively detects UV light as shown by conductance increment after UV illumination exposure. The nanorod array shows good field emission properties with low turn on field and threshold field at 2.1 V/μm and 5.6 V/μm, respectively. The result suggested that Al doped ZnO nanorod arrays prepared by low‐cost sol‐gel immersion method show promising result towards fabrication of multi applications especially in UV photoconductive sensor and field emission displays.