The formation of external layers of TiH2 on titanium metal by cathodic polarization was studied in buffers of oxalic, tartaric and of acetic acids. Reliable and reproducible hydride layers were obtained from pH 0.8 to 5.3. Variations in pH in this region

The surface morphology of ZnO grown on p-GaN templates and p-Si (1 1 1) substrates at various temperatures by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in a vertical reactor at atmospheric pressure is reported. A low temperature ZnO buffer was deposited initially at 200 °C for 15 min as a nucleation layer. Epitaxial ZnO was grown at 500 °C, 550 °C, 600 °C for 40 min, respectively. Uniformly distributed and well-aligned ZnO nanorods with diameter in the range 80–120 nm and length ∼0.7 μm were observed for deposition on p-GaN template. By contrast, the morphology of ZnO epilayers grown on p-Si (1 1 1) transitioned from 2D to 3D with increasing growth temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra showed all the ZnO epilayers had the hexagonal wurtzite structure but different preferred orientation. PL spectra showed only free-exciton emission at 378 nm (∼3.28 eV) with a full width at half maximum of 13 nm without defect-related green emission in the epitaxial ZnO grown at 550 °C and 600 °C. The epitaxial ZnO layers grown on p-GaN and p-Si at the same temperature have similar PL spectra. The PL measurement also exhibits strong exciton-related emission without defect peak, which showed that the ZnO nanostructures grown at 550 °C and 600 °C have good optical properties with excellent crystal quality.