Island nucleation, optical and ferromagnetic properties of vertically aligned secondary growth ZnO : Cu nanorod arrays

Abstract

The paper reports an island nucleation and secondary growth of aligned ZnO : Cu nanorod arrays via thermal vapor phase transport. Results analysis indicates that the secondary segment is epitaxially grown on the ZnO : Cu nanorods with the radius strongly dependent on temperature and the concentration of zinc vapor. The modified characteristic radius (R_c) model is used to explain the nucleation and secondary growth process. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectra indicate that the band gap emission of the secondary growth nanorods is greatly restrained. A controversial 3.31 eV emission (A line) and two different donor–acceptor pair (DAP) recombinations at 3.24 eV and 2.48 eV are observed at 13 K. The A line shows a different behavior from the two DAP emissions during the heat-up process. Intrinsic room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) is observed in the secondary growth ZnO : Cu nanorods and it can be explained by oxygen vacancy and copper defects related to bound magnetic polar (BMP) or double exchange mechanism.