Low-temperature fabrication of single-crystal ZnO nanopillar photonic bandgap structures

We describe the fabrication of single-crystal nanopillars of ZnO in two-dimensional periodic and aperiodic arrays for photonic applications. The structures are defined by a thin polymer template created by e-beam lithography and are grown at 90 °C using an electrochemical process. The individual single-crystal ZnO pillars have diameters of ∼120 nm and lengths greater than 1 µm. Visible light diffraction patterns from the ordered arrays were observed, and the in-plane photonic bandgap was characterized.