Zinc vacancies and interstitials in ZnO nanorods

Nominally undoped ZnO nanorods, grown by a chemical method, have been post-treated to intentionally incorporate high concentrations of zinc vacancies and zinc interstitials and were studied with electron microscopy and low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy. The Zn_i are related to the 3.405 eV peak at 4.2 K, verifying that Zn_i is a shallow donor lying 30 meV below the conduction band minimum, while the acceptors V_Zn are related to the 3.308 eV peak at 4.2 K and have an activation energy of 123 meV.