Characterizations of Ga-doped ZnO nanowires depending on growth temperature and target-substrate distance in hot-walled pulsed laser deposition

Using a hot-walled pulsed laser deposition (HW-PLD), nanowires (NWs) comprising 3 weight% Ga-doped ZnO (3GZO) have been successfully grown on a sapphire substrate. The structural and optical properties of 3GZO nanostructures have also been systematically investigated with respect to the target-substrate (T-S) distance and the growth temperature. The morphology transformations of nanostructures such as nano-horns, NWs, and clusters are strongly affected by growth temperatures due to different thermal energy. Also, the morphologies of nanostructures-including length, diameter, and density-are strongly affected by the T-S distance, illustrating a close correlation between the growth kinetics and the position in the plume formed by the particles from the GZO target. Also, the exciton that is bound to the neutral donor (D ⁰X) peak of the 3GZO nanostructures is found at the low temperature PL spectra, indicating successful Ga-doping into ZnO NWs.