Effect of annealing temperature on density of ZnO quantum dots

ZnO quantum dots (QDs) were fabricated on Si (001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and subsequent thermal annealing. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analyses revealed that the ZnO QDs had polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure. The size and density of ZnO QDs were investigated by atomic force microscopy. It has been found that the density decreased while the size increased with increasing annealing temperature. The analysis of size distribution of the dots shows an obvious bimodal mode according to scaling theory. The Raman spectrum shows a typical resonant multi-phonon form for the ZnO QDs. The collapse from the top of the dots was observed firstly after the samples were exposed in air for 30 days.