The bending effect of self-catalyst zinc oxide nanowires on a photoconducting behavior has been investigated by in-situ scanning electron microscope method and interpreted by analytical modeling. Zinc oxide NWs tend to incline due to geometric instability and because of the piezoelectric properties, which was confirmed by scanning electron microscope images. A cantilever bending model adequately describes the bending and bundling events, which are linked to the electrostatic interaction between nanowires. The light absorption of zinc oxide nanowires in the visible and near infrared bands has been modelled using the finite difference time domain method. The influence of the density of nanowires (25%, 50%, 75%) and the integration of plasmonic nanoparticles distributed on the seed layer (with varied radii) on the light absorption of zinc oxide nanowires was studied using simulation analysis. We have shown that the geometry of zinc oxide nanowires in terms of length, separation distance, and surface charge density affects the process of zinc oxide nanowires bending and bundling and that absorption will be maximized by integrating Au plasmonic nanoparticles with a radius of 10 nm.
Keywords: Au nanoparticles; FDTD; NWs deflection; SEM method; ZnO nanowires; light absorption.