Enhanced radiation hardness of ZnO nanorods versus bulk layers

Abstract

It is shown that ZnO nanorods grown by MOCVD exhibit enhanced radiation hardness against high energy heavy ion irradiation as compared to bulk layers. The decrease of the luminescence intensity induced by 130 MeV Xe+23 irradiation at a dose of 1.5 × 1014 cm–2 in ZnO nanorods is nearly identical to that induced by a dose of 6 × 1012 cm–2 in bulk layers. The change in the nature of electronic transitions responsible for luminescence occurs at an irradiation dose around 1 × 1014 cm–2 and 5 × 1012 cm–2 in nanorods and bulk layers, respectively. High energy heavy ion irradiation followed by thermal annealing is also effective on the quality of ZnO nanorods grown by electrodeposition.