ZnO nanosheet networks and hexagonal nanodiscs grown on silicon substrate: growth mechanism and structural and optical properties

Two-dimensional ZnO nanosheet networks composed of many thin and uniform hexagonal-shaped ZnO nanosheets and ZnO nanodiscs were prepared in a large scale on silicon substrate through thermal evaporation using ZnCl2 and O2 as source materials for Zn and oxygen, respectively, without the use of metal catalysts or additives. Detailed structural studies indicated that the synthesized products are single crystalline with wurtzite hexagonal structure. Raman scattering of the synthesized products confirmed that the as-grown structures have good crystal quality with a hexagonal wurtzite phase. Room temperature photoluminescence spectra showed a strong green band with a suppressed UV emission from the ZnO nanosheet networks, but on the other hand a dominant and strong near band edge emission with a much suppressed deep level emission was observed in the nanodiscs. The growth mechanism of these structures is also discussed in detail.