Advances in growth, doping, and devices and applications of zinc oxide

Zinc oxide is a breakthrough multifunctional material of emerging interest applicable in the areas of electronics, computing, energy harvesting, sensing, optoelectronics, and biomedicine. ZnO has a direct and wide bandgap and high exciton binding energy. It is nontoxic, earth-abundant, and biocompatible. However, the growth and characterization of high-quality ZnO has been a challenge and bottleneck in its development. Efforts have been made to synthesize device-quality zinc oxide and unleash its potential for multiple advanced applications. ZnO could be grown as thin films, nanostructures, or bulk, and its properties could be optimized by tuning the growth techniques, conditions, and doping. Zinc oxide could be a suitable material for next generation devices including spintronics, sensors, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, thermoelectrics, etc. It is important and urgent to collate recent advances in this material, which would strategically help in further research and developments in ZnO. This paper provides a coherent review of developments in ZnO growth, leading to its advancing applications. Recent developments in growth technologies that address native defects, current challenges in zinc oxide, and its emerging applications are reviewed and discussed in this article.