Abstract
In2O3 rods with dodecahedron In2O3 microcrystals on top were synthesized in an electrical furnace via Au-catalyzed vapor transport process. A catalyst-assisted selective vapor-solid (VS) growth was proposed to explain the formation of the dodecahedron In2O3 microcrystal, while the self-catalytic VS growth mechanism dominated the subsequent one-dimensional (1D) growth of the In2O3 rod underneath the In2O3 microcrystal. The structural evolution of these structures was carefully examined during the synthesis process by controlling the growth parameters. The morphologies, crystalline structures and surface chemistry were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum at room temperature of the as-grown In2O3 structures exhibited both UV and blue luminescence emission under one excitation at 260nm, which may be related to the existence of oxygen vacancies. The synthesized multifaceted In2O3 microcrystal has shown to contain a large number of vertices and may find many applications in developing three-dimensional (3D) resonators. This work will not only enrich the synthesis science but also will open doors for applications of such structures in optical devices.