Zinc oxide nanostructures grown by pulsed laser deposition

We report the use of PLD to grow different ZnO nanostructures. Very different film morphologies have been observed using different laser wavelengths to ablate the target. The influence of substrate temperature and oxygen background pressure on the film morphology has been investigated too. Smooth and rough films, hexagonal pyramids and columns have been obtained by using a KrF excimer laser (248 nm) for the target ablation, while hexagonal hierarchical structures and pencils have been obtained by using ArF (193 nm). Photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction measurements revealed the good quality of the samples, in particular of those deposited using the ArF laser beam.