Photoluminescence studies of ZnO nanorods grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy.

Metal catalyst-free ZnO nanorods were grown on PS with buffer layers grown at 450 degrees C by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Room temperature and temperature-dependent photoluminescence were carried out to investigate the optical properties of the ZnO nanorods with the average diameter of 120 nm and length of 300 nm. Three emission peaks, free excition, neutral-donor exciton, and free electron-to-neutral acceptor, were observed at 10 K. Huang-Rhys factor S of the ZnO nanorods was 0.978, which is much higher than that of ZnO thin films. The values of Varshni's empirical equation fitting parameters were alpha = 4 x 10(-3) eV/K, beta = 4.1 x 10(4) K, and E9(0) = 3.388 eV and the activation energy was about 96 meV.