Carbon-assisted nucleation and vertical growth of high-quality ZnO nanowire arrays

We developed a carbon-assisted physical-vapor-deposition method for the growth of highly aligned ZnO nanowire arrays on any flat substrates in large area. Amorphous carbon (a-C) films acted as the preferential nucleation sites to facilitate the growth of high-quality ZnO nanowire array patterns. The ultrathin a-C films can effectively retard the inclined growth of ZnO nanowires at the edge of the a-C patterns. The investigations of the nanowire structures, photoluminescence and electrical transport properties have shown that the ZnO nanowires were well crystallized and the formation of defects in the nanowires was largely suppressed.