Highly ordered three-dimensional ZnO nanorods for novel photonic devices

On‐purpose positioned epitaxial ZnO nanorods were grown on transparent substrate by wet chemical method. The high degree of vertical alignment can be ascribed to the epitaxial ZnO seed film deposited on a c‐plane sapphire substrate. The diffraction pattern taken on the array reveals the two‐dimensional ordering of the nanorods while the transmittance measurement showed high transparency. Both optical measurements were compared with three‐dimensional finite‐difference time‐domain simulations. The realized model structure promises novel applications such as three‐dimensional solar cells and photodetectors. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)