Effect of indium doping on ZnO: morphological change from nanorod to hexagonal nanodisk

Pure ZnO nanorods and In-doped ZnO hexagonal nanodisks have been synthesized by solvent-thermal method. The morphology of ZnO crystal changes from nanorods to hexagonal nanodisks as the In doping concentration is 4.65 at.%. X-ray diffraction results reveal that crystal lattice spacing ( d ) of (100) and (101) shrinks and that of (002) expands as In element is doped into ZnO crystal. Crystal lattice distortion causes suppression of growth along [0001] direction. Optical properties of nanorods and nanodisks have been studied by UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy and photo-luminescence spectra. Compared to nanorods, the band-edge emission (393.5 nm) of nanodisks presents a red shift and the photo-luminescence intensity also weakens evidently due to In doping.