Influence of different growth environments on the luminescence properties of ZnO nanorods grown by the vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) method

ZnO nanorods (NRs) are grown in different atmospheres (argon, air, oxygen and nitrogen) by using the vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) method. The influence of different growth atmospheres on the luminescence properties has been investigated by using the photoluminescence (PL), cathodoluminescence (CL) and electroluminescence (EL) spectra measurements at room temperature. The PL spectra investigations reveal that the air, the oxygen and the nitrogen growth atmospheres have strongly affected the oxygen interstitial (Oi) and oxygen vacancy (VO) related deep level emission (DLE) bands in ZnO and this fact is also found consistent with the cathodoluminescence (CL) and electroluminescence (EL) spectra investigations. The color rendering investigations reveal that the growth atmospheres have also influenced the color quality of the emitted light. These results indicate that the defects related emissions from the band gap of ZnO NRs can be tuned by using different growth atmospheres. These results can be useful for the development of white light emitting diodes (WLEDs). •This paper analyses luminescence from ZnO nanorods grown in different atmospheres.•The growth atmospheres have strongly affected the luminescence from ZnO nanorods.•The growth atmospheres influenced the color quality of emitted light.