A multistep pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) process is presented for epitaxial, nominally undoped ZnO thin films of total thickness of 1 to 2 μm on c-plane sapphire substrates. We obtain reproducibly high electron mobilities from 115 up to 155 cm2/V s at 300 K in a narrow carrier concentration range from 2 to 5×1016 cm−3. The key issue of the multistep PLD process is the insertion of 30-nm-thin ZnO relaxation layers deposited at reduced substrate temperature. The high-mobility samples show atomically flat surface structure with grain size of about 0.5–1 μm, whereas the surfaces of low-mobility films consist of clearly resolved hexagonally faceted columnar grains of only 200-nm size, as shown by atomic force microscopy. Structurally optimized PLD ZnO thin films show narrow high-resolution x-ray diffraction peak widths of the ZnO(0002) ω- and 2Θ-scans as low as 151 and 43 arcsec, respectively, and narrow photoluminescence linewidths of donor-bound excitons of 1.7 meV at 2 K.

The size dependence of whispering gallery modes in dielectric resonators with hexagonal cross section has been observed within the visible spectral range for cavity diameters comparable to the light wavelength. As a model system single, tapered, high aspect ratio zinc oxide nanoneedles were analyzed. They enable systematic investigations as a function of the resonator diameter down to the nanometer regime. A simple plane wave interference model without free parameter describes the spectral positions and the linewidths of the modes in good agreement with the experiment.

Mg x Zn 1 − x O nanowires with Mg-content x from 0 to 0.2 have been grown by high-pressure pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) on gold-covered sapphire single crystals. The PLD process allows for a unique wide-range control of morphology, diameter, and composition of the MgxZn1−xO nanowires. The diameter of single ZnO wires could be varied between about 50 and 3000 nm, and the Mg content x of MgxZn1−xO wire arrays was controlled via the PLD gas pressure. The microscopic homogeneity of Mg content is displayed by cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging of the excitonic peak energy. The fluctuation of CL peak energy between individual wires is about an order of magnitude smaller than the alloy broadening.

Phosphorus-doped ZnO (ZnO:P) nanowires were successfully prepared by a novel high-pressure pulsed-laser deposition process using phosphorus pentoxide as the dopant source. Detailed cathodoluminescence studies of single ZnO:P nanowires revealed characteristic phosphorus acceptor-related peaks: neutral acceptor-bound exciton emission (A 0 , X, 3.356 eV), free-to-neutral-acceptor emission (e, A 0 , 3.314 eV), and donor-to-acceptor pair emission (DAP, ∼3.24 and ∼3.04 eV). This means that stable acceptor levels with a binding energy of about 122 meV have been induced in the nanowires by phosphorus doping. Moreover, the induced acceptors are distributed homogeneously along the doped nanowires.

Using ZnO a variety of micro-and nanostructures can be fabricated. We investigate hexagonal micropillars grown by high pressure pulsed laser deposition on sapphire with spatially and spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence. We demonstrate that the impurity and defect incorporation is strongly inhomogeneous, at least under the present growth conditions, dramatically influencing the optical properties.