Journal of The Electrochemical

Society

Fabrication and Characterization of Ni-Doped ZnO Nanorod Arrays for

UV Photodetector Application
To cite this article: Yen-Lin Chu et al 2020 J. Electrochem. Soc. 167 067506

View the article online for updates and enhancements.

This content was downloaded from IP address 137.154.19.149 on 22/03/2020 at 12:54

 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506
1945-7111/2020/167(6)/067506/8/$40.00 © 2020 The Electrochemical Society (“ECS”). Published on behalf of ECS by IOP Publishing Limited

Fabrication and Characterization of Ni-Doped ZnO Nanorod

Arrays for UV Photodetector Application
Yen-Lin Chu,1 Liang-Wen Ji,1,z Yu-Jen Hsiao,2,z Hao-Ying Lu,3 Sheng-Joue Young,4
I-Tseng Tang,5 Tung-Te Chu,6 and Xin-Jia Chen1
1
Department of Electro-Optical Engineering & Institute of Electro-Optical and Materials Science, National Formosa
University, Yunlin 632, Taiwan
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Tainan 710, Taiwan
3
Department of Electronic Engineering, National Quemoy University, Kinmen 892, Taiwan
4
Department of Electronic Engineering, National Formosa University, Yunlin 632, Taiwan
5
Department of Greenergy, National University of Tainan, Tainan 701, Taiwan
6
Department of Mechanical Automation Engineering, Kao Yuan University, Kaohsiung 821, Taiwan

In this work, the structure morphologies, lattices, and optical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) with various amounts
of nickel (Ni) dopants were investigated and explored. The 100 nm ZnO seed layer was grown on the Corning glass substrate by
the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique, and the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method was used to grow NR
arrays. It was found that the Ni concentration of the sample is 1.06 at% by EDX spectra examination. All the NRs exhibited a
hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially grew along the c-axis on the substrate. Additionally, the ultraviolet (UV)
photodetectors (PDs) with Ni-doped ZnO (NZO) NRs based on metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) structure were fabricated
through a photolithography process. Then, such a sample was annealed at 500 °C to obtain good performance and reduced oxygen
vacancy (∼560 nm). The results showed that the NZO NRs were with an excellent photosensitivity for UV PD applications and a
faster rise/decay time than pure ZnO. Furthermore, with a 3 V applied bias and 380 nm UV illumination, the sensitivities of the
fabricated ZnO PDs with different Ni contents (0, 4, and 8 mM) were 71.45, 393.04, and 238.75, respectively.
© 2020 The Electrochemical Society (“ECS”). Published on behalf of ECS by IOP Publishing Limited. [DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/
ab7d43]

Manuscript submitted January 16, 2020; revised manuscript received February 24, 2020. Published March 19, 2020.

Because of the excessive exposure of UV radiation in the living
environment, people are suffering from several kinds of diseases like
as cataract, and skin cancer, etc. There is an urgent need of UV light
detection, especially the quantitative measurement. The demands for
UV detection technologies and components are well upraising.1 In
recent years, the UV PDs based on semiconductor structure have
attracted much attention, especially the active materials, such as
silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN), titanium dioxide
(TiO2), and ZnO.2–5 Among the above mentioned, ZnO material
has been studied deeply and widely. ZnO is a wide direct band-gap
semiconductor with gap energy (3.37 eV), and it has large excitation
binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature (RT).6 Other unique
properties of ZnO are also discovered, such as chemical stability,
higher saturated carrier drift rate. The most important thing is non-
toxicity. Besides, ZnO exhibits a hexagonal wurtzite structure with
suitable thermal treatments, the lattice constants of a-axis and c-axis
are 3.24 Å and 5.20 Å, respectively.7–10 Therefore, ZnO has become
one of the most attractive materials in the modern d. There are many
methods to fabricate ZnO nanostructure like pulsed laser deposition
(PLD), thermal evaporation, metal organic chemical vapor deposi-
tion (MOCVD), and CBD method.11–14 Among these methods, the
CBD is a convenient, uncomplicated, and inexpensive method.
According to these excellent advantages, it was applied to synthesize
ZnO nanostructure in our experiments.
Based on the properties above, ZnO can be used in the electronic
and optical field, for example: field-emission displays (FEDs), gas
sensors, UV PDs, and PH sensors.5–8 Among all, the UV PDs can be
applied to UV-light calibrating, flame sensing, ozone layer mon-
itoring, and other fields.15 So far, there are many structures to
manufacture ZnO UV PDs like P-N junction, Schottky junction, and
MSM structure.15,16 The performances of these devices usually
depend on the fabricating procedures of ZnO nanomaterials.
According to other research reports, ZnO is usually capable of
oxygen adsorption and desorption on the surface of nanostructures.
This reason can reduce the dark current and improve the sensitivity
of ZnO PDs. But, the rise and decay time of photocurrents are
prolong as well, and this phenomenon limits the practical application
z
E-mail: lwji@nfu.edu.tw; lwji@seed.net.tw; yujenhsiao.tw@gmail.com
of ZnO NRs.16–18 In order to solve the above drawback, Ni element
is applied to be a dopant. Ni element possesses lots of chemical and
physical properties, such as corrosion resistance, chemical stability,
and good electrical and thermal conductivity.19 The ionic radius of
Ni2+ (0.069 nm) is closer to Zn2+ (0.074 nm) and the valence of
Zn2+ is the same to that of Ni2+.20 These characteristics lead to the
charge separation and transport in ZnO nanostructures with Ni2+
ions. Thus, ZnO nanostructures can change the property of material
and the sensitivity of PDs by Ni dopants.
In this paper, the ZnO NRs with different Ni concentrations (0, 4,
and 8 mM) were manufactured by the CBD method, and the
characteristics of NZO materials and PD samples were examined
by several instruments. In our experiments, the designed UV PDs are
labeled as NZO-0 (pure ZnO), NZO-4 (4 mM Ni solution), and
NZO-8 (8 mM Ni solution).
Experimental
Before the fabrication of PD samples, the 2 cm × 2 cm Corning
glass substrates were washed by acetone, deionized (DI) water, and
isopropyl alcohol in the ultrasonic oscillator for 5 min, respectively.
Then, the above substrates were dried in the oven for about 10 min at
45 °C. The 100 nm ZnO film used as a seed layer was grown on
Corning glass substrates by the RF magnetron sputtering technique.
The work pressure, gas flow, and power of chamber were ∼5 ×
10−6, Ar/O2 = 12/1, and 30 W, respectively. Subsequently, photo-
lithography processes were used to define a micro-pattern on the
substrates by the shadow mask in this experiment. The titanium (Ti)
film with thickness 100 nm was evaporated onto seed layer as a
contact electrode by an electron beam evaporation to form the MSM
structure. The lift-off procedure was applied to form the micro-
patterned interdigital transducer (IDT) electrode structure (The size
of sensing active region was 30 μm × 30 μm). The chamber for the
Ti film evaporation was evacuated to 5 × 10−6 Torr, and the voltage
of system was maintained at 5 kV. All the reagents used in this
experiment were analytically grade, no more purification is required.
The experimental reagents of NZO NRs fabrication were zinc
acetate dihydrate [Zn (CH3COO)2·2H2O, 99.99%], hexamethylene-
tetramine (C6H12N4, HMTA), and nickel(II) acetate [Ni(CH3COO)2,
99.8%]. The ratios of zinc acetate dihydrate (0.025 M) and HMTA
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506
(0.05 M) were adjusted to 0.5, and the concentrations of Ni solutions
used in this experiment varied from 0 to 8 mM, the step is 4 mM.
The aqueous solution was mixed under regular stirring for 20 min at
RT. When the solution was even after mixing, the solution was
immediately transferred to Teflon-lined autoclave by using the CBD
method to grow NR arrays for 3 h at 90 °C in the oven. Until the
reaction of the solution was completed, the Teflon-lined autoclave
was cooled down at RT for 1 h. The samples were rinsed three times
with DI water and dried in air for 10 min. Finally, the PD samples
were annealed for 15 min in the air environment at 500 °C by using
the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) method, as shown in Fig. 1.
The surface structure, crystal structure, and element content of the
synthesized materials were characterized by using the field-emission
scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM, JEOL JSM-6700F), the
high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM, JEOL
JEM-2100F CS-STEM), and an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer
(EDX), respectively. The X-ray diffraction spectrum analyzer (XRD,
MO3XHF22 MAC-Science) was used to characterize the crystal-
lographic properties of the grown pure ZnO and NZO NRs. The
optical characteristics of the PD samples were analyzed by the
photoluminescence spectrometer (PL, Labram HR) and used a
He-Cd laser as the excitation light source at RT. The Keithley 2410
semiconductor system analyzer was used to measure the properties of
PD samples, including characteristics of current-time (I-T), current-
voltage (I-V), and photoresponsivity (A/W).
Results and Discussion
In this experiment, the growth mechanism of NZO NRs was
based on the hydrolysis of Zn and Ni in aqueous solution to form Ni:
ZnO nanocrystals. The sources of zinc cation (Zn2+) and nickel
cation (Ni2+) were supplied by zinc acetate dihydrate and nickel(II)
acetate, respectively. In the meanwhile, the hydroxide (OH−) group
was released in the aqueous solution by thermal decomposition of
Figure 1. The schematic diagram showed the manufacture procedures for the PD samples based on NZO NRs.
HMTA, it also existed as a precursor of zinc nickel hydroxide in this
reaction. Subsequently, the nucleate of NZO NRs was grown on
ZnO seed layer. The growth reaction processes are as follows
equations:21
C 6 H12 N4 + 6H2 O  6HCHO + 4NH [1]
NH3 + H2 O  NH 4+ + OH- [2]
Zn (CH3COO 2 )1 - x (NiCH3COO 2 ) x  (Zn1 - xNix )2 + + 2CH3COO-
[3]
(Zn1 - xNix ) 2 + + 2OH-  (Zn1 - xNix)(OH) 2 [4]
(Zn1 - xNix)(OH) 2  Ni: ZnO + H2 O [5]
The effects of Ni concentration on structure morphology and
growth mechanisms of ZnO were studied by FE-SEM analysis
shown in Fig. 2. The hexagonal structure of the NRs could be
clearly found from the top view images in Figs. 2a–2c. Besides, it
was also observed that the diameter size of NRs increased under
increasing of Ni doping concentration, the coarsening and aggrega-
tion phenomena would come out gradually. Then, the structure and
morphology would be developed rapid dramatically. The side view
images also clearly showed the growth direction of the NRs, there
is vertical growth on substrate. However, the length of NRs
decreased gradually by increasing the concentration of Ni dopant,
as shown in Figs. 2d–2f. This phenomenon can be attributed to the
bond energy of Ni-O is more than that of Zn-O, would result in the
difference of surface energy between the polar and non-polar plane,
which enhanced lateral growth and inhibited vertical growth, this
trend is similar to that previously reported by Kim et al. and Dong
et al.22,23
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506
Figure 2. The top view (a)–(c) and side view (d)–(f) FE-SEM images of the as-grown pure ZnO, NZO-4, and NZO-8 NR arrays (growth mechanism of NZO
NRs on seed layer-coated Corning glass substrate).
The XRD patterns and the PL spectra of synthesized pure ZnO
and NZO NRs are shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 3a, there are three
diffraction peaks at 2Theta degree of 34.58°, 47.48°, and 63.12°, it
was also correspond to (002), (102), (103) of the crystal planes in
structure of ZnO NRs, respectively. The same diffraction peaks also
can be found in XRD patterns of NZO NRs. It was found that (002)
of plane is higher than (102) and (103) of planes. The reason
indicates that the pure ZnO and NZO NRs preferred to grow along
the c-axis and the crystal lattice in the hexagonal wurtzite structure
(JCPDS Card No. 36-1451). In addition, there are no other
impurities appeared, such as Ni metal (JCPDS Card No. 04-0850)
and Ni compound (nickel oxide, NiO) (JCPDS Card No. 47-1049).24
The inset of Fig. 3a is the enlarge drawing of the pure ZnO and NZO
NRs at 2Theta = 33 ∼ 36 θ, the red-shift of diffraction peak is
originated from the decrease of d-spacing. Bragg’s Law is shown in
the following equation:25
nl = 2d sin q [ 6]
Where n is the order of diffraction, λ is the wavelength of the
X-rays, θ is the angle of diffraction, and the value of d is the distance
between planes, respectively. The (002) peak position slightly
shifted from 34.58° to 34.72°. This reason is due to the radius of
Ni2+ ion (0.069 nm) smaller than Zn2+ ion (0.074 nm).20,26 The PL
spectra of pure ZnO and NZO NR arrays are shown in Fig. 3b. Two
main peaks could be observed in PL spectra of all samples. One peak
is UV emission of ∼380 nm (3.26 eV) and is being derived from
exciton recombination of ZnO structure in near-band emission
(NBE). The other peak is located at ∼560 nm (2.21 eV). It is also
called green luminescence region and deep-level emission (DLE)
due to inherent defects in ZnO structure, such as zinc interstitials
(Zni), oxygen vacancies (Vo), and oxygen antisites (OZn) related the
donor defects and surface states of materials.27,28 However, when
the Ni doping concentration increase, the red-shift of UV emission
peak will generate. This phenomenon can be explained by two
reasons: First, the sp-d exchange interactions between the band
electrons. Second, the localized “d” electrons of Ni2+ ions sub-
stituting for Zn2+ ions.29 This means that the Ni2+ ions successfully
incorporated into the Zn2+ lattices of the ZnO matrix. In addition,
the oxygen vacancy regions were eliminated by doping Ni and
annealing treatment at high temperature in air conditions.30
In order to understand whether Ni doping has been successfully
incorporated into ZnO structure, we scraped the sample onto the
copper mesh and analyzed it by HR-TEM shown in Fig. 4. In
Figs. 4a–4b, the images exhibit a single NR. In our previous
experiment,6 the d-spacing of pure ZnO NRs was 0.264 nm. In
comparison, the d-spacing of NZO NRs was 0.258 nm, due to
presumably the exchange of Ni2+ with Zn2+ in the ZnO lattice. The
lattice spacing of the hexagonal wurtzite NZO was 0.523 nm, and
grew vertically along the direction of (002) plane. The selected area
electron diffraction (SAED) pattern showed the order arrangement
of single crystal strips. It indicates that the nanostructure had good
crystallinity, as shown in Fig. 4c. Figures 4d–4g show the images of
elemental mapping analysis of a single NZO NR in a pink frame. It
can be clearly observed that not only the Zn (red) and O (cyan), but
also some Ni (yellow) elements in the structure of ZnO, it meant that
Ni doping is successful. Furthermore, the EDX image shows that the
NR arrays consist of Zn, O, and Ni, respectively. The Ni content in
the samples can be calculated from the intensity ratio between the
peak values of Zn, O, and Ni. The atomic contents of Zn, O, and Ni
in the samples were 50.64, 48.30, and 1.06%, respectively, as shown
in Fig. 4h.
In Fig. 5, the photocurrent characteristics of PDs with different
Ni contents were measured by turn-on and turn-off under UV
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506
Figure 3. (a) The XRD patterns of the ZnO NRs synthesized with different
Ni concentrations (the upright inset of magnified XRD pattern was (002)
plane). (b) The PL spectra of the pure ZnO and NZO NR arrays at RT.
illumination at a 3 V applied bias. Here, we labeled the rise times
(r1, r2) indicated the time for the photocurrent rises to 50% and 90%
of the peak value, and the decay times (d1, d2) showed the time for
the photocurrent decays to 50% and 10% of the peak value,
respectively. In the coefficients of PD samples, transient’s response
of turn-on and turn-off can be closely fitted by exponential curves
shown in the following equations:31
⎡ ⎛ -t ⎞ ⎤
Turn‐on: I (t) = I 0 (t) ⎢1 - exp ⎜ ⎟ b ⎥ [7]
⎣ ⎝ tr ⎠ ⎦
⎡ ⎛ -t ⎞ ⎤
Turn‐on: I (t) = I 0 (t) ⎢exp ⎜ ⎟ b ⎥ [8]
⎣ ⎝ td ⎠ ⎦
Where the I0(t), t, β, and τ are the transient current, the time after
turn-on/turn-off, the decay exponent, and the time constant, respec-
tively. The fitted exponential curves showed that β was approxi-
mately ∼1, the results are shown in Figs. 5a–5c. The time constants
in 50% and 90% of NZO-4 PD samples for turn-on were τr1 and
τr2 = 9, and 70 s, and the time constants in 50% and 10% of NZO-4
PD samples for turn-off were τd1 and τd2 = 6, and 43 s, respectively.
It can be seen that the NZO-4 PD samples are excellent. In the inset
of figure being measured continuously, it showed that the stability of
the PD samples was better (yellow block region is under 380 nm UV
light illumination). The photocarrier relaxation revealed two pro-
cesses of electron transportation, one of the electrons was trapped by
the surface states, and the other was electron loss and recombination
occurred in the deep defect states.31,32 Figures 5d–5f show the NZO-
0, NZO-4, and NZO-8 PDs measured from −5 V to +5 V bias
voltages. All the samples were designed as a MSM structure in our
experiment, this structure is similar to that previously reported by
Young et al.33 With an applied bias of 3 V, it presented that the dark
currents were 0.69, 3.83 × 10−2, and 7.45 × 10−2 μA. The
photocurrents were 0.50 × 10−1, 1.50 × 10−2, 1.77 × 10−2 mA,
respectively. Compared with the pure ZnO NRs, the sensitivity
(Iph/Id) of PDs with 4 mM Ni concentration is the best. Figure 5g
indicates the responsivity of the synthesized pure ZnO and NZO
PDs. The pure ZnO and NZO PDs reveal a short-wavelength region
and are cut-off at approximately 378 nm and 380 nm, respectively.
With the incident light wavelength is 380 nm at an applied bias of
3 V, the responsivities of the pure ZnO and NZO PDs were 1.49,
2.10, and 2.02 A W−1, respectively. The UV-to-visible rejection
ratios of the pure ZnO, NZO-4, and NZO-8 samples were 22.25,
282.90, and 80.39 as the responsivity is measured at the UV peak
(380 nm) and the visible peak (560 nm), respectively. These results
reveal that the NZO PDs exhibited better characteristics than pure
ZnO PDs.
Figure 6 shows the model mechanism of NZO PD samples with
and without UV light illumination environment. In general environ-
ment, the surrounding oxygen (O2) molecules usually are adsorbed
by capturing free electrons on the surface of the NZO NR arrays
[O2(gas) + e−→ O2−(adsorption)], they form a high depletion
region and a high energy barrier (ФB > ФB’), and result in low
conductivity,34 as shown in Fig. 6a. At the same time, under the UV
radiation (hv > Eg), the generation of electron-hole pairs causes a
band-to-band transition process [hv → e−+ h+], it illustrates that the
photocurrent rises rapidly in a first few seconds. On the other hand,
the photogenerated massive holes move to the surface of the NZO
NR arrays along the bending band by releasing oxygen (O2−) ions, it
causes the conductivity increase and the depletion region decrease
[O2−(adsorption) + h+ → O2(gas)],20,35,36 as shown in Fig. 6b.
Besides, because the Ni element could contribute to the formation of
hole carriers, the conductivity of Ni-doped ZnO will be enhanced.30
In the meanwhile, due to the NZO NR arrays are with high surface/
diameter ratio, it can promote the adsorption of oxygen molecules by
capturing free electrons. This will lead to photosensitive effects and
electrical properties become better in the NZO nanostructures.
Additionally, since such a PD device has a MSM structure, the
current rises with either a forward or a reverse voltage under UV
illumination. The photoconductivity may take place in two possible
routes. In the first route (blue color), the ZnO film underneath NZO
NRs may be affected by an external bias (e.g., an electric field).
Meanwhile, the NZO NRs play the major role for UV light
absorption. As a second route (red color), the rapid response and
recovery time of NZO NRs seem to reflect the high crystallinity of
the one-dimensional NRs and their particular structure. As shown in
the side view of Fig. 2, many NRs grow vertically and close to each
other, it will greatly reduce the ability in capturing of photo-
generated carriers and probability of light scattering.37 It can be
seen that the electrons transferred more easily through the boundary
between the NR arrays upon UV illumination leads to short response
and recovery times, as shown in Fig. 6c. On the other hand, many
intrinsic defects may also be introduced by increasing the Ni content
in ZnO NRs, which will decrease the response speed of the
devices.38 Nonetheless, by selecting the optimal Ni content in ZnO
NRs appropriately, the sensitivity for UV detection of the NZO PDs
may be greatly improved. However, for the PDs of different ZnO
materials, some significant works have been reported recently, which
are summarize in Table I. Among the results, reveal the UV
characteristic of ZnO is obviously improved by doping Ni in ZnO
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506

Figure 4. (a) The TEM image of single crystalline NZO NR arrays, (b)–(c) are the corresponding HR-TEM image and SAED pattern. (d) Selected image of a
single NZO NR for the EDX mapping analysis. The corresponding elemental mapping images for Zn (red), O (cyan), Ni (yellow) are shown in images (e), (f),
and (g), respectively. (h) The EDX spectra of the NZO NR arrays.

matrix. It can be expected that such a device will be well-used for
UV detection.
Conclusions
As demonstrated above, the NZO NRs were successfully
synthesized on the Corning glass substrate with MSM structure by
using the CBD method and a photolithography process. EDX
analysis indicated that the concentration of NZO NR arrays is 1.06
at%. HR-TEM and SAED patterns showed the NZO NRs were
structurally uniform, and contain no defects such as dislocations and
stacking with 0.523 nm lattice spacing of (002) crystal planes. It is
clear that the NZO NRs had hexagonal wurtzite structure and
displayed good crystalline quality in this work. In the PL spectra,
the results indicated that the Ni element incorporations into the
structure of ZnO, the oxygen vacancy could be reduced, and
conductivity should be promoted by annealing process treatment.
In the meanwhile, the NZO PD samples had a faster rise/decay time
than pure ZnO and exhibited the high sensitivity under the UV light
illumination. In the future technology, the UV PDs can be combined

Table I. Comparison of the photosensitivity explored in the literature and this investigation.

Device structure Bias (V) Sensitivity (Iph/Id) Rise time (s) Decay time (s) Responsivity (A/W) References

ZnO NRs 1 <10 42.9 132.9 × 39

Ga-ZnO NRs 1 11.7 29.75 89.67 <0.05 40
2 at% Cd-ZnO film 5 93.78 37.03 221.93 × 41
15 at% Mg-ZnO film 5 71.68 381 122.5 × 42
NZO-4 NRs 3 393.04 70 43 2.10 Present
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506

Figure 5. The I-T characteristics of (a) NZO-0, (b) NZO-4, and (c) NZO-8 were measured with and without UV light illumination at 3 V. (The inset of
illustration is continuous measurement at 3 V). The I-V characteristics of (d) NZO-0, (e) NZO-4, and (f) NZO-8 PD samples from −5 V to 5 V.
(g) Responsivities of a UV photodetector constructed from ZnO NRs with different Ni contents.
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506

Figure 6. (a)–(b) The schematic models were indicated the internal mechanism of NZO NR arrays in the dark and UV light environment. (c) Schematic
representation of photoconductivity transfer mechanisms in the PDs with ZnO film and NR arrays (dashed line is the possible transfer route of electrons).

with internet of things and applied it to human skin to avoid skin
aging and skin cancer.
Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science
and Technology of Taiwan with project number: MOST 107-2221-
E-150-032, MOST 108-2221-E-024-006, and MOST 108-2221-E-
150-013-MY2. The authors would also like to thank TSRI (Taiwan
Semiconductor Research Institute) at National Applied Research
Laboratories and National Cheng Kung University for the fabrica-
tion of mask and the partial analysis of device characterization.
ORCID
Yen-Lin Chu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9076-5485
References
1. S. J. Young and K. W. Yuan, J. Electrochem. Soc., 166, B1034 (2019).
2. A. Sciuto et al., IEEE Sensors J., 19, 2931 (2019).
3. M. L. Tu, Y. K. Su, S. J. Chang, and R. W. Chuang, J. Cryst. Growth, 298, 744
(2007).
4. T. J. Chang and T. J. Hsueh, J. Electrochem. Soc., 167, 027521 (2020).
5. S. J. Young and T. H. Wang, J. Electrochem. Soc., 165, B3043 (2018).
6. Y. T. Tsai, S. J. Chang, L. W. Ji, Y. J. Hsiao, I. T. Tang, H. Y. Lu, and Y. L. Chu,
ACS Omega, 3, 13798 (2018).
7. Y. L. Chu, L. W. Ji, H. Y. Lu, S. J. Young, I. T. Tang, T. T. Chu, J. S. Guo, and
Y. T. Tsai, J. Electrochem. Soc., 167, 027522 (2020).
8. S. J. Young and W. L. Tang, J. Electrochem. Soc., 166, B3047 (2019).
9. E. Espid, B. Adeli, and F. Taghipour, J. Electrochem. Soc., 166, H3223 (2019).
10. W. H. Zhou, H. H. Wang, W. T. Li, X. C. Guo, D. X. Kou, Z. J. Zhou, Y. N. Meng,
Q. W. Tian, and S. X. Wu, J. Electrochem. Soc., 165, G3001 (2018).
11. D. Wu, M. Yang, Z. Huang, G. Yin, X. Liao, Y. Kang, X. Chen, and H. Wang,
J. Colloid Interface Sci., 330, 380 (2009).
12. S. Y. Bae, C. W. Na, J. H. Kang, and J. Park, J. Phys. Chem. B, 109, 2526 (2005).
 Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 2020 167 067506
13. E. Chikoidze, M. Modreanu, V. Sallet, O. Gorochov, and P. Galtier, Phys. Status
Solidi A, 205, 1575 (2008).
14. J. K. Zhao et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 166, H3074 (2019).
15. Z. Ke, Z. Yang, M. Wang, M. Cao, Z. Sun, and J. Shao, Sens. Actuators, A, 253,
173 (2017).
16. R. Anitha, R. Ramesh, R. Loganathan, D. S. Vavilapalli, K. Baskar, and S. Singh,
Appl. Surf. Sci., 435, 1057 (2018).
17. S. I. Inamdar, V. V. Ganbavle, and K. Y. Rajpure, Superlattices Microstruct., 76,
253 (2014).
18. R. Bahramian, H. Eshghi, and A. Moshaii, Mater. Des., 107, 269 (2016).
19. S. B. Jagadale, V. L. Patil, S. S. Mali, S. A. Vanalakar, C. K. Hong, P. S. Patil, and
H. P. Deshmukh, J. Alloys Compd., 766, 941 (2018).
20. I. B. Elkamel, N. Hamdaoui, A. Mezni, R. Ajjel, and L. Beji, RSC Adv., 8, 32333
(2018).
21. S. H. Chiu and J. C. A. Huang, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 358, 2453 (2012).
22. K. H. Kim, Z. Jin, Y. Abe, and M. Kawamura, Mater. Lett., 149, 8 (2015).
23. X. Dong, J. Wang, H. Wang, Z. Shi, and B. Zhang, Adv. Mater. Res., 562, 11
(2012).
24. P. R. Chithira and T. T. John, J. Alloys Compd., 766, 572 (2018).
25. P. Chand, A. Gaur, A. Kumar, and U. K. Gaur, Ceram. Int., 40, 11915 (2014).
26. R. D. Shannon, Acta. Cryst., A32, 751 (1976).
27. M. L. Dinesha, H. S. Jayanna, S. Mohanty, and S. Ravi, J. Alloys Compd., 490, 618
(2010).
28. P. Yang, H. Yan, S. Mao, R. Russo, J. Johnson, R. Saykally, N. Morris, J. Phan,
R. He, and H. Choi, Adv. Funct. Mater., 12, 323 (2002).
29. M. R. Modaberi, R. Rooydell, S. Brahma, A. A. Akande, B. W. Mwakikunga, and
C. P. Liu, Sens. actuators. B Chem., 273, 1278 (2018).
30. J. H. He, C. S. Lao, L. J. Chen, D. Davidovic, and Z. L. Wang, J. Am. Chem. Soc.,
127, 16376 (2005).
31. Y. H. Liu, S. J. Young, L. W. Ji, and S. J. Chang, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum
Electron., 21, 3800405 (2015).
32. A. Bera and D. Basak, Appl. Phys. Lett., 93, 053102 (2008).
33. S. J. Young and Y. H. Liu, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 63, 3160 (2016).
34. S. J. Young and Y. H. Liu, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., 23, 3800905
(2017).
35. S. Safa, Optik, 126, 2194 (2015).
36. N. K. Hassan and M. R. Hashim, J. Alloys Compd., 577, 491 (2013).
37. X. X. Gong, G. T. Fei, W. B. Fu, B. N. Zhong, X. D. Gao, and L. D. Zhang, Appl.
Surf. Sci., 404, 7 (2017).
38. A. B. Djurisic and Y. H. Leung, Small, 2, 944 (2006).
39. S. J. Chang, C. W. Liu, C. H. Hsiao, K. Y. Lo, S. J. Young, T. H. Kao, K. S. Tsai,
and S. L. Wu, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 25, 2089 (2013).
40. C. H. Hsiao, C. S. Huang, S. J. Young, S. J. Chang, J. J. Guo, C. W. Liu, and
T. Y. Yang, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 60, 1905 (2013).
41. N. Kumar and A. Srivastava, J. Alloys Compd., 706, 438 (2017).
42. N. Kumar and A. Srivastava, J. Alloys Compd., 735, 312 (2018).