Abstract
The investigation of the structural, electronic and optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures has been an active field of research for the past decade. In particular, nanowires made of the large bandgap zinc oxide (ZnO) and its alloys have been extensively investigated because this material system is a promising candidate for applications in short-wavelength optoelectronics, photonics, solar cells and sensors. In this talk, I will highlight recent results on the growth of oxide nanowires via a vapour transport method in which patterned metallic templates are used to control assembly of nanowires. Although the properties of these grown nanowires are mainly governed by the well-known bulk properties, the influence of the surface increases with decreasing their size. We performed surface, optical and electronic characterisation of grown nanowires and the results were correlated to their growth and doping conditions. Of particular interest is the use of scanning cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy, which is capable of providing high spatial resolution maps of the distributions of impurities, point defects and strain in nanowires. This mapping technique has facilitated new approaches to extract information from the nanocharacterisation of individual nanowires.
Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar.
Anyone interested is welcome to attend.