Twinning-induced kinking of Sb-doped ZnO nanowires

Sb-doped ZnO nanowires with kinking structures have been synthesized by a catalyst-free thermal evaporation method with the addition of Sb2O3. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations revealed that the kinks of the nanowires are induced by twinning structures. {01 (1) over bar1}, {01 (1) over bar3} twins and heavy stacking faults in the (0001) plane were observed in these kinked nanowires. High-resolution TEM and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy showed that there exists an Sb-rich segregation layer in the twin boundaries of some nanowires. A formation mechanism of the kinked nanowires was proposed. The optical property of the synthesized nanowires was investigated by room-temperature photoluminescence.