Array of ultraviolet luminescent ZnO nanodots fabricated by pulsed laser deposition using an anodic aluminium oxide template

Ordered arrays of ZnO nanodots were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using an anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) nanopore membrane. Hexagonal-shaped ZnO nanodots with an average diameter of 60 nm and a periodicity of 100 nm were uniformly assembled into hexagonally ordered nanopores of the AAO membrane. Control of the oxygen pressure used in PLD resulted in a preferential photoluminescence (PL) at 380 nm from the ZnO nanodots: keeping the higher O-2 pressure gave a dominant PL peak in the UV range over the visible range, which is attributed to the reduction of the number of oxygen vacancies.