Hydrothermal synthesis of oriented ZnO nanobelts and their temperature dependent photoluminescence

Oriented single crystalline ZnO nanobelts have been synthesized through a hydrothermal method. Structural characterizations using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy revealed that the ZnO nanobelts possess wurtzite structure with a c-axis growth orientation and are faceted in (112 0) and (0 110) atomic planes. The growth mechanism of the nanobelts was discussed. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurement of the annealed ZnO nanobelts has been carried out and it showed that both the excitonic emission and the deep level emissions increased with decreasing temperature. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.