In this work ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO nanocrystals were synthesized by one-step aqueous solution method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) analysis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy have been used to characterize the samples in detail. The XRD studies revealed that the ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO had wurtzite structure (hexagonal). The composi...

This paper reports direct growth of [001] ZnO nanorod arrays on ITO substrate from aqueous solution with electric field assisted nucleation, followed with thermal annealing. X-ray diffraction analyses revealed that nanorods have wurtzite crystal structure. The diameter of ZnO nanorods was 60–300 nm and the length was up to 2.5 μm depending on the growth condition. Photoluminescence spectra show...

Strain in colloidal heteronanocrystals with non-centrosymmetric lattices presents a unique opportunity for controlling optoelectronic properties and adds a new degree of freedom to existing wavefunction engineering and doping paradigms. We synthesized wurtzite CdSe nanorods embedded in a thick CdS shell, hereby exploiting the large lattice mismatch between the two domains to generate a compress...

ZnO nanowires have been successfully fabricated on Si substrate by simple thermal evaporation of Zn powder under air ambient without any catalyst. Morphology and structure analyses indicated that ZnO nanowires had high purity and perfect crystallinity. The diameter of ZnO nanowires was 40 to 100 nm, and the length was about several tens of micrometers. The prepared ZnO nanowires exhibited a hex...

We report on the growth and characterization of high-quality GaN nanowires for hydrogen sensors. We grew the GaN nanowires by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using gold thin films as a catalyst on a Si wafer with an insulating SiO2 layer. Structural characterization of the as-grown nanowires by several methods shows that the nanowires are single-crystal wurtzite GaN. Photoluminescence...

A generalized solid-state nudged elastic band (G-SSNEB) method is presented for determining reaction pathways of solid-solid transformations involving both atomic and unit-cell degrees of freedom. We combine atomic and cell degrees of freedom into a unified description of the crystal structure so that calculated reaction paths are insensitive to the choice of periodic cell. For the rock-salt to...

Hierarchical tree-, mushroom- and cockscomb-like ZnO arrays with increasing branching order and complexities have been grown in situ on cheap zinc plates by a simple hydrothermal oxidation approach. Their morphology, crystal structure and orientation relationship are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cross-sectional high-resolution transmission el...

The injection of spin polarized electrons from ferromagnetic metals (Fe and Co) into gallium nitride (GaN) via scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is demonstrated. Electrons from STM tips are injected into the semiconductor. Net circular polarization of the emitted light is observed, which changes sign on reversal of the magnetization of the tip. The polarization is found to be in qualitative a...

We demonstrate structural and room temperature magnetic properties of Fe doped ZnO nanofibers (NFs) obtained by electrospinning followed by calcination. The observed NFs, formed from crystalographically oriented, approximately 4.5 nm particles conglomerates, were approximately 200 nm in diameter. The reported synthesis of room temperature ferromagnetic Fe doped ZnO NFs is both facile and econom...

We demonstrate the first electric field induced transverse deflection of a single-crystal, free-standing ZnO microbelt as a result of converse piezoelectric effect. For a microbelt growing along the c-axis, a shear stress in the a-c plane can be induced when an electric field E is applied along the a-axis of the wurtzite structure. As amplified by the large aspect ratio of the microbelt that gr...