Well-aligned ZnO nanorods for device applications: Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO nanorods and n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diodes

School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, BK 21 Center for Future Energy Materials and Devices, Chonbuk National University - Jeonju - 561 756, South Korea

Corresponding author: ybhahn@chonbuk.ac.kr

Received: 6 October 2007
Accepted: 26 November 2007

Abstract

Well-aligned, low-resistive zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were grown on ZnO-coated glass and p-Si substrates using a simple and economic solution method. The device performance of ZnO nanorods has been investigated by studying their p-n junction diode behaviour at room temperature. The as-grown n-ZnO/p-Si diode exhibited a low turn-on voltage and saturation current of ~ 2.25 V and ~ 1.27 μA, respectively, with a diode quality factor of 1.9. These investigations reveal that the well-aligned ZnO nanorod structures can be used as an active layer in the fabrication of efficient optoelectronic nano-devices.