Defects luminescence enhancement in Cu doped ZnO nanorords

The intrinsic luminescence characteristics of ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs) at 380 nm make them widely used in the fields of UV detectors. However, their application is limited by the narrow luminescent spectrum. In this paper, Cu doped ZnO NRs films have been grown by hydrothermal method on Si substrates. Besides, the influence of Cu atomic content on the microstructure, intrinsic and defects luminescence performance of the films has also been studied. The results showed that the higher energy released from O2− bonding with Cu2+ than that with Zn2+ inhibited the NRs’ growth in the C-axis direction and improved that in the horizontal direction after Cu doping. After testing, it was found that Cu2+ replaced Zn2+, and the grain cell became larger with the improvement of Cu atomic content. Through the PL spectrum, Cu doping could increase the number of defects(VZn and Zni) which were determined as main defects in visible light of ZnO NRs. In terms of photoelectric properties, the intrinsic and defects luminescence performance of ZnO nanorods reached the best with the Cu atomic content of 0.5 %. In addition, Cu working as the acceptor level could also enhance the intrinsic luminescence performance of nanorods.