Zinc-Oxide-Based Electronics and Photonics

ZnO is a remarkable multifunctional material with a distinctive and highly tuneable property set. It also has a low materials cost, is readily nanostructurable and can be deposited in large-area thin film form at high rates and low temperatures using a number of techniques including vacuum deposition, chemical vapor phase deposition, solution based processing and even printing. A recent study by Nanomarkets (www.nanomarkets.net) identified the most mature ZnO electronics/photonics applications as anti-static layers, optical filtering, electromagnetic interference shielding, varistors, surface acoustic wave devices and optical coatings. It also identified a number of key emerging applications: predominantly photovoltaics, displays, sensors (gas, ultraviolet [UV] light, and biological), light-emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers. In this article we give an overview of these existing and emerging electronics/photonics applications.