Epitaxial Growth of Zinc Oxide on Single Crystalline Gold Plates

Although metal-oxide interfaces are the critical components of many electronic and optical devices, it is rare to find epitaxial metal-oxide structures. We demonstrate for the first time, a method for the low temperature, epitaxial growth of zinc oxide (ZnO) on single crystalline gold plates. The gold plates, up to 100$\mu$m in width, are grown from a gold-surfactant complex. Even with the large lattice mismatch between (111) gold and (0001) ZnO, we are able to form epitaxial zinc oxide at 90$^\circ$C on top of the single crystal gold plates. This epitaxial growth is confirmed using transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and electron backscatterer diffraction. Micro-photoluminescence is also performed to investigate the optical properties of the epitaxial zinc oxide. We remove the grown ZnO membranes from the gold plates using a stamping and etching process. These membranes can potentially be used to fabricate high quality microdisks and photonic crystals. The metal-oxide interfaces that we have fabricated may have the ability to be used in a number of technologically important applications, including as better electrical contacts and for improved light extraction from planar LED structures.