Morphological, structural and optical study of quasi-1D SnO2 nanowires and nanobelts

0.1-0.3 mm thick entanglements of quasi-one-dimensional semiconducting Tin dioxide nanocrystals, in form of nanowires and nanobelts, are successfully grown by low cost Chemical Vapour Deposition directly on large area (100 mm2) Al2O3, SiO2 and Si substrates. Their lateral size ranges from 50 to 700 nm and their length can achieve several hundreds of micrometers. Transmission Electron Microscopy reveals either the nanowires and the nanobelts grow in the tetragonal Rutile structure. Diffraction contrast analyses and selected area diffraction investigations show the nanowires are single crystals without defects while the nanobelts sometimes present twins inside. An almost cylindrical shape and an average diameter of about 30-50 nm for the smallest nanowires is reported. X-ray diffraction investigations exclude the presence of spurious phases. A broad band structured in two emissions peaked at about 450 nm and 560 nm is revealed by large area Cathotoluminescence, while single nanocrystal spectroscopy shows that the reduction of the lateral dimension of the nanobelts from 1000 nm to 50 nm blue-shifts the main emission band at 560 nm of about 40 nm (at room temperature). These preliminary results suggest a possible role of oxygen vacancies and of the surface/volume ratio on the origin and the blue shift of Cathodoluminescence spectra. The near band edge emission, typical of bulk tin dioxide (~320 nm), is not found in nanobelts narrower than 1000 nm.