Uniform zinc oxide nanowire arrays grown on nonepitaxial surface with general orientation control

Bottom-up synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires requires a highly engineered substrate to achieve alignment and orientation control. Here, we report textured ZnO film as an inexpensive substrate to fulfill the requirement. The textured film is coated conformally on various surface topographies and allows the epitaxial growth of ZnO nanowires with vertical, tilted, or lateral orientations. The textured film can also be formed into three-dimensional structure for growing novel nanostructures. The growth flexibility can potentially simplify device fabrication and optimize device performance.