Transparent Silver-Nanoparticles/Nanorods-Decorated Zinc Oxide Nanowires

Transparent zinc oxide nanowires orderly decorated with silver nanoparticles/nanorods were synthesized by thermal evaporating of metallic zinc powders at 550 C by using Ag nanoparticles-coated silicon as the substrate. As-obtained ZnO nanowires are single crystals with the preferred growth directions along the [0001] plane, with Ag nanoparticles/nanorods orderly attached to the whole length of the nanowires. Single ZnO-nanowire-based devices were fabricated, and it is revealed that as-synthesized Ag-nanoparticle/nanorods-decorated ZnO nanowires are transparent conductors with resistivities down to 6.8 x 10(-4) Omega cm and failure-current density up to 4.5 x 107 A/cm(2) because of the single-crystalline metallic structure.