Structural and Raman properties of silver-doped ZnO nanorod arrays using electrically induced crystallization process

The vertically-aligned ZnO:Ag nanorods doped by the electrically induced crystallization (EIC) process at a low temperature, 200°C, were investigated. The XRD analysis revealed that the EIC process significantly improved the crystallinity and quality of the resulting ZnO nanorods/ZnO thin film. Spectroscopy coupled with XPS confirmed that Ag elements were doped into the ZnO nanorods. The Raman spectrum indicated the strong blue shift of the A₁(TO) and A₁(LO), and there emerged a new Raman mode at 482 cm^-1, termed the "TH mode" which is believed to have been created by silver nanoballs appearing on the surface of the silver films. This study demonstrated that EIC is a viable approach to dope the metal elements into nanostructures, and can thus help to produce optical devices with a 1D ZnO p-type structure.