4D Electron Diffraction Reveals Correlated Unidirectional Behavior in Zinc Oxide Nanowires
- 19 September 2008
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 321 (5896), 1660-1664
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1162049
Abstract
The confined electronic structure of nanoscale materials has increasingly been shown to induce behavior quite distinct from that of bulk analogs. Direct atomic-scale visualization of nanowires of zinc oxide was achieved through their unique pancake-type diffraction by using four-dimensional (4D) ultrafast electron crystallography. After electronic excitation of this wide-gap photonic material, the wires were found to exhibit colossal expansions, two orders of magnitude higher than that expected at thermal equilibrium; the expansion is highly anisotropic, a quasi–one-dimensional behavior, and is facilitated by the induced antibonding character. By reducing the density of nanowires, the expansions reach even larger values and occur at shorter times, suggesting a decrease of the structural constraint in transient atomic motions. This unanticipated ultrafast carrier-driven expansion highlights the optoelectronic consequences of nanoscale morphologies.Keywords
This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit:
- Three-photon absorption saturation in ZnO and ZnS crystalsJournal of Applied Physics, 2008
- Linear and nonlinear optical properties of ZnO nanorod arraysChinese Physics B, 2008
- Structural Preablation Dynamics of Graphite Observed by Ultrafast Electron CrystallographyPhysical Review Letters, 2008
- Ultrafast Electron Crystallography. 3. Theoretical Modeling of Structural DynamicsThe Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2007
- Breaking resolution limits in ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- A comprehensive review of ZnO materials and devicesJournal of Applied Physics, 2005
- General Route to Vertical ZnO Nanowire Arrays Using Textured ZnO SeedsNano Letters, 2005
- Nanowire Nanosensors for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biological and Chemical SpeciesScience, 2001
- Semiconductor Clusters, Nanocrystals, and Quantum DotsScience, 1996
- Molecular Self-Assembly and Nanochemistry: a Chemical Strategy for the Synthesis of NanostructuresScience, 1991