45 mA at −3 V). On the other hand, the leakage current is greatly suppressed for the sample with PR inserted in ZnO/CuO CH. In addition, we also find that at a bias of 3 V, the rectifying ratio of the former and the latter is 8 and 110, respectively. Thus, the ZnO/CuO CH with PR shows a better rectifying ratio compared with the ZnO/CuO heterojunction without PR. The results demonstrate clearly that adding a PR blocking layer can reduce the reverse leakage current and improve the rectifying ratio. Figure 1 I – V characteristic curves of ZnO/CuO without PR (black line) and ZnO/CuO CH with PR (red line). The inset shows a schematic diagram

of the sample structure with PR as an insulating layer.

Figure  2a shows SEM selleck inhibitor images of the cross-sectional view of ZnO NW arrays. We can see in this figure that ZnO NWs were grown perpendicularly to the ITO substrate. The bottom-left inset in this figure is the image of the tilt Selleckchem KU 57788 view of ZnO NW arrays, and the selleck chemicals top-right inset is the image of the ZnO NWs with PR on top being removed by acetone. We note from the top-right inset that about 200-nm-long ZnO on top of ZnO NWs was not covered by PR. Figure  2b is the image taken after the CuO layer was deposited. For TEM measurement, the sample was put in absolute alcohol and was then vibrated ultrasonically. Subsequently, the solution was dropped onto copper grids with carbon film. The TEM image of ZnO/CuO CH shown in Figure  2c indicates that the diameter of the ZnO NW and the thickness of the CuO layer are about 120 and 30 nm, respectively. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) pattern obtained from the square region marked in Figure  2c indicates two lattice planes. The FFT analysis shows that the d-spacing calculated from the electron diffraction spots are estimated to be around 0.26 and 0.23 nm. Figure  2d shows two groups of parallel fringes

with the d-spacing of 0.26 and 0.23 nm which correspond Metalloexopeptidase to the (002) plane of wurtzite ZnO and the (111) plane of monoclinic CuO, respectively. Figure 2 SEM and TEM images and FFT. SEM images of the cross-sectional view of (a) ZnO NW arrays and (b) ZnO NWs/CuO CH. Bottom-left and top-right insets in (a) show tilt views of ZnO NWs and PR on ZnO NWs, respectively. (c) Low-magnification TEM image and FFT (inset) of ZnO/CuO CH. (d) High-magnification TEM image of the ZnO/CuO interface taken from the square region drawn in Figure  2 c. The XRD patterns of ZnO NWs and ZnO/CuO CH are shown in Figure  3. For the ZnO NWs, the peaks at 30.5°, 32.3°, and 34.9° are the diffraction peaks from ITO (222), ZnO (100), and ZnO (002), respectively. Two extra peaks at 35.8° and 39.2° show up for the ZnO/CuO CH structure, corresponding to the diffraction from CuO and CuO (111), respectively [16–18].