Optical properties of ZnO nanowire arrays electrodeposited on n- and p-type Si(1 1 1): Effects of thermal annealing

Electrodeposition is a low temperature and low cost growth method of high quality nanostructured active materials for optoelectronic devices. We report the electrochemical preparation of ZnO nanorod/nanowire arrays on n-Si(111) and p-Si(111). The effects of thermal annealing and type of substrates on the optical properties of ZnO nanowires electroplated on silicon (111) substrate are reported. We fabricated ZnO nanowires/p-Si structure that exhibits a strong UV photoluminescence emission and a negligible visible emission. This UV photoluminescence emission proves to be strongly influenced by the thermal annealing at 150-800 degrees C. Photo-detectors have been fabricated based on the ZnO nanowires/p-Si heterojunction. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved