Directed assembly of ZnO nanowires on a Si substrate without a metal catalyst using a patterned ZnO seed layer

We demonstrate selective growth of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on a (100) Si substrate using a patterned thin film ZnO seed layer. Metal catalysts, which can be a source of contamination, were not used. A single-crystalline structure with c-axis preferred orientation and a strong intrinsic near band edge photoluminescence peak at 380 nm with no detectable visible photoluminescence indicate a lack of defects and the high quality of the ZnO nanowires.