Vertically aligned indium doped zinc oxide nanorods for the application of nanostructured anodes by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Vertically aligned indium doped zinc oxide (IZO) nanorods (NRs) have been grown without any external catalyst on an indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Wurtzite IZO NRs distributed homogeneously on the substrate with a preferential orientation along the (002) crystallographic plane. The indium atoms are found to be spatially incorporated into the ZnO lattice along the axial direction by the migration of adatoms from the ITO coated glass substrate at the growth temperature of 550 °C. The doping concentration and mobility of the NRs are determined to be 1.3 × 1017 cm−3 and 68 cm2 V−1 s−1 by the Raman line shape analysis of the longitudinal optical phonon–plasmon coupled mode. The maximum optical transmittance of 83% in the visible region could be an ideal system for nanotextured anode and photovoltaic applications.