TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of solvents on sol–gel spin-coated nanostructured Al-doped ZnO thin films
T2 - a film for key optoelectronic applications
AU - Kumar, K. Deva Arun
AU - Valanarasu, S.
AU - Kathalingam, A.
AU - Ganesh, V.
AU - Shkir, Mohd
AU - AlFaify, S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited by sol–gel spin coating technique onto the glass substrates using different solvents such as 2-methoxyethanol, methanol, ethanol and isopropanol. Prepared films were characterized by XRD, Raman spectrum, SEM, UV–visible spectrophotometer, photoluminescence (PL) and electrical studies. XRD studies showed that all the prepared films are hexagonal wurtzite structure with polycrystalline nature oriented along (002) direction. SEM images showed uniform particles of size around 60 nm distributed regularly on to the entire glass substrate. EDX analysis confirmed the composition of grown AZO film consisting of Al, Zn and O elements. The prepared films showed highest optical transmittance ~ 94% in the visible range and band gap 3.30 eV. PL spectra for all AZO films showed a strong UV emission peak at 387 nm. The AZO films prepared using isopropanol solvent showed high carrier concentration and low resistivity values as 1.72 × 1020 cm−3 and 2.90 × 10−3 Ω cm, respectively, with high figure of merit (ϕ) value 8.42 × 10−3 (Ω/sq)−1.
AB - Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited by sol–gel spin coating technique onto the glass substrates using different solvents such as 2-methoxyethanol, methanol, ethanol and isopropanol. Prepared films were characterized by XRD, Raman spectrum, SEM, UV–visible spectrophotometer, photoluminescence (PL) and electrical studies. XRD studies showed that all the prepared films are hexagonal wurtzite structure with polycrystalline nature oriented along (002) direction. SEM images showed uniform particles of size around 60 nm distributed regularly on to the entire glass substrate. EDX analysis confirmed the composition of grown AZO film consisting of Al, Zn and O elements. The prepared films showed highest optical transmittance ~ 94% in the visible range and band gap 3.30 eV. PL spectra for all AZO films showed a strong UV emission peak at 387 nm. The AZO films prepared using isopropanol solvent showed high carrier concentration and low resistivity values as 1.72 × 1020 cm−3 and 2.90 × 10−3 Ω cm, respectively, with high figure of merit (ϕ) value 8.42 × 10−3 (Ω/sq)−1.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85036476511&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00339-017-1426-z
DO - 10.1007/s00339-017-1426-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85036476511
SN - 0947-8396
VL - 123
JO - Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing
JF - Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing
IS - 12
M1 - 801
ER -