Crystal structure Zinc oxide crystallizes in three forms: hexagonal wurtzite, cubic zincblende, and the rarely observed cubic rocksalt). The wurtzite structure is most stable at ambient conditions and thus most common. The zincblende form can be stabilized by growing ZnO on substrates with cubic lattice structure. In both cases, the zinc and oxide centers are tetrahedral. The rocksalt (NaCl-type) structure is only observed at relatively high pressures about 10 GPa.[13] Hexagonal and zincblende polymorphs have no inversion symmetry (reflection of a crystal relatively any given point does not transform it into itself).
This and other lattice symmetry properties result in piezoelectricity of the hexagonal and zincblende ZnO, and in pyroelectricity of hexagonal ZnO. The hexagonal structure has a point group 6 mm (Hermann-Mauguin notation) or C6v (Schoenflies notation), and the space group is P63mc or C6v4. The lattice constants are a = 3.25 A and c = 5.2 A; their ratio c/a ~ 1.60 is close to the ideal value for hexagonal cell c/a = 1.633.[14] As in most group II-VI materials, the bonding in ZnO is largely ionic, which explains its strong piezoelectricity. Due to the polar Zn-O bonds, zinc and oxygen planes bear electric charge (positive and negative, respectively). Therefore, to maintain electrical neutrality, those planes reconstruct at atomic level in most relative materials, but not in ZnO – its surfaces are atomically flat, stable and exhibit no reconstruction.
This anomaly of ZnO is not fully explained yet.[15] Mechanical properties ZnO is a relatively soft material with approximate hardness of 4.5 on the Mohs scale.[2] Its elastic constants are smaller than those of relevant III-V semiconductors, such as GaN. The high heat capacity and heat conductivity, low thermal expansion and high melting temperature of ZnO are beneficial for ceramics.[16] Among the tetrahedrally bonded semiconductors, it has been stated that ZnO has the highest piezoelectric tensor or.
