Plasma Hydrogenation Of Hydrothermally Grown Zno Micropods

The hydrothermally grown ZnO micropods have been placed on grounded stainless-steel holder and exposed to an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) monitored in-situ by optical emission spectroscopy (OES). OES shows the immediate release of oxygen during Ar ion bombardment. The prolonged exposure to hydrogen plasma leads to deterioration of the optical properties as well. The exposure, rf power and hydrogen pressure have been optimized to enhance UV-photoluminescence peak at the wavelength 384 nm related to surface bounded excitons and reduce the defect-related photoluminescence in red spectral range. The strong UV photoluminescence appears just after 1 minute of plasma hydrogenation in a radio frequency plasma discharge with power density 40 W/dm(3) and hydrogen pressure 17 Pa.