Abstract
This paper reports the successful growth of aligned ZnO nanorods on p-Si substrate via lowtemperature simple aqueous solution process. The prepared nanorods were examined in terms of their morphological, structural, compositional and optical properties using several analytical
tools such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The detailed characterization studies revealed that the as-grown nanorods are vertically aligned, wellcrystalline
possessing wurtzite hexagonal phase, grown along the [0001] direction and possessing good optical properties. Furthermore, the prepared n-ZnO nanorods/p-Si heterojunction assembly was used to fabricate heterojunction diode. The fabricated heterojunction diode exhibits good rectifying
behavior of rectification factor of 16 at voltage of 7.2 volts. High values of quality factor and series resistance of the device of ∼4 and 52 kΩ, respectively, are obtained from I-V characteristics. The high series resistance may play the role of a shunt resistance
that causes a partial drop in the output current of the whole assembly.