Sonicated sol-gel preparation of nanoparticulate ZnO thin films with various deposition speeds: The highly preferred c-axis (002) orientation enhances the final properties

• Published in: Journal of Alloys and Compounds
• Main Author: Malek M.F.; Mamat M.H.; Khusaimi Z.; Sahdan M.Z.; Musa M.Z.; Zainun A.R.; Suriani A.B.; Sin N.D.M.; Hamid S.B.A.; Rusop M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2014
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84882809707&doi=10.1016%2fj.jallcom.2013.07.202&partnerID=40&md5=5efb008ebda1265a795e07ac34960da8

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates at various deposition speeds by a sonicated sol-gel dip-coating technique. This work studies the effects of deposition speed on the crystallisation behaviour and optical and electrical properties of the resulting films. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that thin films were preferentially oriented along the (002) c-axis direction of the crystal. The transformation sequence of strain and stress effects in ZnO thin films has also been studied. The films deposited at a low deposition speed exhibited a large compressive stress of 0.78 GPa, which decreased to 0.43 GPa as the deposition speed increased to 40 mm/min. Interestingly, the enhancement in the crystallinity of these films led to a significant reduction in compressive stress. All films exhibited an average transmittance of greater than 90% in the visible region, with absorption edges at ∼380 nm. The photoluminescence (PL) measurements indicated that the intensity of the emission peaks varied significantly with deposition speed. The optical band gap energy (Eg) was evaluated as 3.276-3.289 eV, which increased with decreasing compressive stress along the c-axis. The energy band gap of the resulting ZnO films was found to be strongly influenced by the preferred c-axis (002) orientation. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.