Single-crystalline Zn2SnO4 hexangular microprisms: Fabrication, characterization and optical properties

Large-scale Zn₂SnO₄ hexangular microprisms were successfully synthesized through a simple thermal evaporation method by heating metal Zn and Sn powders under varying temperatures. The synthesized microprisms are single-crystalline, tens of micrometers in length. And their surfaces have many nano-scale skewed steps along the axial direction. Structurally, we supposed that the hexangular prism could be described as a row of inlaid octahedron of Zn₂SnO₄ crystals. A broad asymmetrical emission band was observed in the PL spectrum of these Zn₂SnO₄ microprisms, which was discussed in detail in the paper.