Well-aligned ZnO nanorods for device applications: Synthesis and characterisation of ZnO nanorods and n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diodes

Well-aligned, low-resistive zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were grown on ZnO-coated glass and p-Si substrates using a simple and economic solution method. The device performance of ZnO nanorods has been investigated by studying their p-n junction diode behaviour at room temperature. The as-grown n-ZnO/p-Si diode exhibited a low turn-on voltage and saturation current of ∼2.25 V and ∼1.27 μA, respectively, with a diode quality factor of 1.9. These investigations reveal that the well-aligned ZnO nanorod structures can be used as an active layer in the fabrication of efficient optoelectronic nano-devices.