The effect of a sputtered Al-doped ZnO seed layer on the morphological, structural and optical properties of electrochemically grown ZnO nanorod arrays

The effect of both a RF sputtered Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin film seed layer onto a FTO/glass substrate and its growth time onto the morphological, structural and optical properties of the resulting electrochemically grown ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs) have been studied. ZnO NRs grown onto the different AZO seed layers exhibit smaller mean diameter and length than those grown onto a bare FTO/glass substrate, but ZnO NR density presents an opposite behavior, by using an AZO seed layer ZnO nanorod density can be increased by a factor of six. ZnO nanorods are highly crystalline with a wurtzite hexagonal structure and with a preferential growth perpendicular to the substrate. The c-axis of most of the ZnO NRs grown onto an AZO seed layer is aligned within ±6° from the substrate surface normal. Both NRAs mean length and density increases light scattering, without greatly affecting the spectra shape. The diffuse reflectance intensity is more sensitive to NR density variations than to length or diameter variations. NR diameter affects directly the shape of these diffuse reflectance spectra: they red-shifts and broadens when NR mean diameter increases. A small influence in the UV edge due to size quantization may be also present.