Effective Suppression of Surface Recombination in ZnO Nanorods Arrays during the Growth Process

ZnO nanorods arrays are respectively prepared under different vapor pressures with opening (OZN) or sealing (SZN) of the beaker. The results from time-resolved photoluminescence measurements indicate that sealing the beaker during the growth process can effectively suppress the surface recombination of ZnO nanorods, and the suppression effect is even better than a 500 degrees C post-thermal treatment or OZN samples. The results from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements reveal that the main reason for this phenomenon is that the surfaces of the SZN samples are attached by groups related to NH3 instead of the main surface recombination centers such as OH and groups in the OZN samples. The ammonia surface treatment on both OZN and SZN samples further testifies that the absorption of the groups related to NH3 does not contribute to the surface recombination on the ZnO nanorods.This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in CRYSTAL GROWTH and DESIGN, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see: Li-Li Yang, Qingxiang Zhao, Magnus Willander, Xianjie Liu, Mats Fahlman and J H Yang, Effective Suppression of Surface Recombination in ZnO Nanorods Arrays during the Growth Process, 2010, CRYSTAL GROWTH and DESIGN, (10), 4, 1904-1910. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/cg100017b Copyright: The American Chemical Society http://pubs.acs.org/