Room temperature ultraviolet light‐emitting ZnO vertical nanowires prepared by electrochemical growth

The <0001>‐oriented ZnO layer and vertical nanowires (vnws) were prepared on the <111>‐Au/Si wafer and <0001>‐Ga:ZnO(GZO) substrates by electrodeposition in zinc nitrate solutions, and the photoluminescence characteristics were estimated at room temperature. The lattice mismatch was estimated to be 12.9–14.8% and 0.4–1.1% for the <111>‐Au/Si wafer and <0001>‐GZO substrates by X‐ray diffraction techniques. The <0001>‐ZnO layer prepared in the 80 mmol L −1 zinc nitrate solution emitted strong visible light originating from native defects, and the <0001>‐ZnO‐vnws prepared in the 8 and 0.8 mmol L −1 zinc nitrate solutions showed a strong ultraviolet light emission due to the recombination of bound excitons, irrespective of the substrate. Excellent ultraviolet light emission has been realized for the <0001>‐ZnO‐vnws prepared on the <0001>‐GZO substrate in the 0.8 mmol L −1 zinc nitrate solution.