MORPHOLOGY AND GROWTH-MECHANISM OF NEW-SHAPED ZNO CRYSTALS

We report new-shaped ZnO crystals grown by using the similar method reported previously for growing four-legs-form tetrapod-like crystals with adding Sn-Zn alloy powder to ZnO/Zn powder. The crystal has four long and four short legs which are united at a same junction and make an equal angle of 70.5-degrees to each other. From the determination of the crystallographic polarity of the faces of octahedral nuclei, we consider that the additional short legs grow on the four oxygen faces of an octahedral nucleus by VLS mechanism where liquid Sn-ZnO alloy acts as an agent for the formation of the stable liquid-solid interface.