Removal of micrometer size morphological defects and enhancement of ultraviolet emission by thermal treatment of Ga-doped ZnO nanostructures

Umair Manzoor; Do K Kim; Mohammad Islam; Arshad S Bhatti

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086418

Removal of micrometer size morphological defects and enhancement of ultraviolet emission by thermal treatment of Ga-doped ZnO nanostructures

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 28;9(1):e86418. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086418. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Umair Manzoor¹, Do K Kim², Mohammad Islam³, Arshad S Bhatti⁴

Affiliations

¹ Alamoudi Water Chair, King Saud University, Riyadh. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ; Center for Micro and Nano Devices, Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad. Pakistan.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon. Republic of Korea.
³ College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Center for Micro and Nano Devices, Department of Physics, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad. Pakistan.

Abstract

Mixed morphologies of Ga-doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures are synthesized by vapor transport method. Systematic scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies of different morphologies, after periodic heat treatments, gives direct evidence of sublimation. SEM micrographs give direct evidence that morphological defects of nanostructures can be removed by annealing. Ultra Violet (UV) and visible emission depends strongly on the annealing temperatures and luminescent efficiency of UV emission is enhanced significantly with each subsequent heat treatment. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) results suggest that crystal quality improved by annealing and phase separation may occur at high temperatures.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Gallium / chemistry*
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Nanostructures / chemistry*
Nanostructures / ultrastructure
Zinc Oxide / chemistry*

Substances

Gallium
Zinc Oxide

Grants and funding

Authors would like to thank Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan for the financial support through “National Research Program for Universities”. The authors would also like to extend their sincere appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for its funding of this research through the Research Group Project no. RGP-VPP-283. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.