Transparent silver-nanoparticles/nanorods-decorated zinc oxide nanowires

Transparent zinc oxide nanowires orderly decorated with silver nanoparticles/nanorods were synthesized by thermal evaporating of metallic zinc powders at 550 °C by using Ag nanoparticles-coated silicon as the substrate. As-obtained ZnO nanowires are single crystals with the preferred growth directions along the [0001] plane, with Ag nanoparticles/nanorods orderly attached to the whole length of the nanowires. Single ZnO-nanowire-based devices were fabricated, and it is revealed that as-synthesized Ag-nanoparticle/ nanorods-decorated ZnO nanowires are transparent conductors with resistivities down to 6.8 × 10^-4 Ωcm and failure-current density up to 4.5 × 10⁷ A/cm² because of the single-crystalline metallic structure.