GROWTH AND PROPERTIES OF SPIN-COATED TRANSPARENT SN AND AL-DOPED ZNO THIN FILMS

Abstract

In this work, Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films doped and undoped with Sn and Al were grown on ITO substrates by the sol–gel spin coating technique, where the Sn/Zn and Al/Zn atomic ratios were, respectively, 5% and 7% in the solution. SZO and AZO structures were examined using XRD, AFM, SEM, UV–vis spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) to investigate the morphology, structural, and optical characteristics. According to XRD analysis, all of the produced films have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a polycrystalline nature oriented along the (1 0 0) direction. The crystallite size was calculated using the well-known Scherrer’s formula and found to be in the range of 23–40 nm. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) results revealed that Sn and Al low doping had an impact on the morphological surface of the films. The measurements from the UV-Visible Spectrophotometer (U–Vis) showed that undoped ZnO film has a high optical transparency in the visible region (over [Formula: see text]%), and then the optical band gap of thin films was calculated. PL is observed for ZnO thin films doped and undoped with Sn and Al.