Epitaxial Electrodeposition of Zinc Oxide Nanopillars on Single-crystal Gold

ZnO nanopillars have been electrodeposited epitaxially onto Au(111), Au(110) and Au(100) single-crystal substrates. The nanopillars grow with the same [0001] out-of-plane orientation on all three substrates. The in-plane orientation was probed by X-ray pole figure analysis. The pole figures had six peaks on Au(111) and twelve peaks on Au(110) and Au(100). Scanning electron microscopy revealed aligned hexagonal nanopillars of ZnO with an average grain size of 85 nm on Au(111). There were two sets of hexagonal grains with an average size of 85 nm on Au(110) and 95 nm on Au(100) that were rotated 90° with respect to each other. Rocking curve analysis showed that the ZnO on Au(100) had the smallest mosaic spread.