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ZnO (Zinc oxide)

by
Alexander Glavtchev
 Why is ZnO interesting?
Widely used:
• medicinal purposes (colds, rashes, antiseptics, sunscreen lotions)
• used in manufacturing of rubber as rubber cure (or as filler)
• pigment for paints and coatings
• in electronics, used mainly in laser diodes, LED’s, transparent thin
film coatings, and various piezoelectrics

Bright future:
• shows promising signs in the field of nanotechnology, UV detecors,
nanoscale detectors and actuators
• direct bandgap semiconductor that could replace silicon as the main
substrate in chip manufacturing (if it can be easily/cheaply p-doped)
• dual semiconductor and piezoelectric properties!!

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 Properties
Melting Point: 1975 °C
High electron mobility: >100cm2/Vs
High exciton binding energy: ~60meV (electron-hole binding energy)
Direct bandgap: 3.3eV

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 Piezoelectric Properties
The output amplitude is related to
the input signal by:

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) and

Lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) are
currently two very-widely used
piezoelectric crystals due to their
high piezoelectric strain coefficients.

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 Piezoelectric Properties
Can produce voltage output from
applied stress (strain), or produce
stress when voltage is applied.
Nanobelts and various nanoscale
features of ZnO give higher
piezoelectric constants (likely due to
less dislocations and the impurity-free
single-crystalline structures).
Piezoelectrics used in: sensors
(acoustic and electronic, as pickups in
electric guitars, detection/generation
of sonar waves, etc.); actuators (high-
precision motors, loudspeakers,
atomic force microscope probe
control); possible future use in
vibration and noise reduction
(housing, automobiles).
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 Semiconductor Properties
• Zinc oxide is a direct wide-bandgap semiconductor (~3.3-3.4eV).
• Allows for efficient photon emission, as in LED’s or laser diodes
(rather than phonon emission with energy loss and heat generation).
• Can easily be n-doped with aluminum, indium, or extra zinc.
• Possesses high electron mobility and photoconductivity – can help
speed up currents in semiconductor devices.

Drawbacks:
• p-doping is currently very difficult and inefficient and has prevented
mass manufacturing of ZnO-based wafers.
• High-purity ZnO grown on substrates other than sapphire has been
challenging.

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 Nano-Structures
• Zinc oxide shows great potential for nanoscale electro-mechanical
fabrication.
• Highly-symmetric, singly-crystalline nanoneedles, nanowires,
nanobelts, nanorings, nanohelixes, nanocombs, etc.
• Hexagonal (wurtzite) structure helps lattice-matching and
controlled growth.
• Positive Zn surfaces and negative O surfaces create electric dipoles
that facilitate polarization growth along certain directions and
planes under applied voltage and temperature.

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 Nano-Structures

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 Summary
• ZnO displays dual semiconductor and piezoelectric properties.
• Used in laser diodes and LED’s.
• Potential to be used as a wide-bandgap semiconductor.
• Widely used in many other fields (medicine, farming, pigments).
• Zinc oxide nanostructure growth is heavily researched presently.
• The substance likely has the largest variety of nanostructures (and
their associated properties) among all known materials.
• It’s hexagonal lattice can easily match catalysts’ lattice structure
and facilitate controlled growth patterns.
• Structures like nanowires, nanobelts and nanorings are of great
interest in photonics research, optoelectronics, nanotechnology, and
biomedicine.

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 Sources
• Nanoarchitectures of semiconducting and piezoelectric zinc oxide. JOURNAL OF APPLIED
PHYSICS 97, 044304 s2005d
• Piezoelectric Characterization of Individual Zinc Oxide Nanobelt Probed by Piezoresponse
Force Microscope. Nano Lett., Vol. 4, No. 4, 2004
• Nanostructures of zinc oxide. Zhong Lin Wang. Materials Today, June 2004.
• Photonic band structure of ZnO photonic crystal slab laser. JOURNAL OF APPLIED
PHYSICS 98, 103102 2005
• Deformation-Free Single-Crystal Nanohelixes of Polar Nanowires. Nano Lett., Vol. 4, No. 7,
2004
• Zinc oxide hexagram whiskers. APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 88, 093101 2006
• Zinc Oxide Nanostructures: Growth, Properties and Applications. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter
16 (2004) R829–R858
• Nitrogen doped zinc oxide thin film. http://repositories.cdlib.org/lbnl/LBNL-54116, 2003
• www.wikipedia.com

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