10.1186/2228-5326-3-57

Structural, morphological and optical properties of sol gel processed CdZnO nanostructured films: effect of precursor solvents

PDF HTML
  • Amritpal Singh1,
  • Praveen Kumar*2,
  1. Nanotechnology Research Centre, DAVIET, Jalandhar, 144008, IN
  2. Department of Physics, DAV University, Sarmastpur, Jalandhar, 144301, IN
Cover Image

Published in Issue 2013-11-14

How to Cite

Singh, A., & Kumar, P. (2013). Structural, morphological and optical properties of sol gel processed CdZnO nanostructured films: effect of precursor solvents. International Nano Letters, 3(1 (December 2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/2228-5326-3-57
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

PDF views: 102

HTML views: 83

Abstract

Abstract Cadmium-doped zinc oxide (CZO) has been the potential candidate for the fabrication of low-cost transparent conductors having applications in energy conversion devices such as thin-film solar cells and light-emitting diodes. In this work, the effect of different precursor solvents on the structural, morphological, and optical properties of sol?gel spin-coated CZO films was investigated. The X-ray diffraction study has revealed the hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with crystallite size ranging from 45 to 49 nm for these films. The surface morphology of these films was analyzed by the atomic force microscopy. The precursor solvent effect was also analyzed using the UV?vis spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques. All the prepared films show the larger values of optical transparency (>80%) along with the shift in the fundamental absorption edge and the direct optical gap was found to be between 3.14 and 3.19 eV. The highly intense band edge emission for the sample was synthesized using the 2-ethoxyethanol while the presence of other defect-related bands in the other samples has been observed. The change in the precursor solvent volatility influences the crystal structure to favor the change in the density/type of defect states in the bandgap is used to discuss the present results. The formation of highly porous films will be suitable for gas sensor applications while the larger value of optical transparency and lower surface roughness have their probable application as the transparent electrodes in optoelectronics.

Keywords

  • CdZnO films,
  • Spin coating,
  • XRD,
  • UV?vis spectroscopy,
  • Fluorescence spectroscopy
PDF HTML

References

  1. Tsay et al. (2011) Effect of preheating process on crystallization and optical properties of sol-gel derived ZnO semiconductor thin films https://doi.org/10.1007/s10832-010-9622-7
  2. Lee et al. (2011) Zinc cadmium oxide thin film transistors fabricated at room temperature? https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2011.02.079
  3. Sonawane et al. (2011) Structural, optical and electrical properties of cadmium zinc oxide films for light emitting devices https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2011.08.022
  4. Caglar et al. (2009) Morphological, optical and electrical properties of CdZnO films prepared by sol?gel method https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/42/6/065421
  5. Duan et al. (2012) Effect of annealing ambient on the structural, optical and electrical properties of (Mg, Al)-codopedZnO thin films https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-8949/85/03/035709
  6. Abadi et al. (2009) Indium-doped zinc oxide thin films by sol?gel method
  7. Sadovef et al. (2006) Visible band-gap ZnCdO heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2388250
  8. Kumar et al. (2010) Effect of cadmium oxide incorporation on the microstructural and optical properties of pulsed laser deposited nano structured zinc oxide thin films https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2009.12.041
  9. Ye et al. (2002) The growth and annealing of single crystalline ZnO films by low-pressure MOCVD 243(1) https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-0248(02)01474-4
  10. Singh et al. (2011) Synthesis of cadmium oxide doped ZnO nanostructures using electrochemical deposition https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2011.01.168
  11. Ma et al. (2001) Effect of post annealing treatments on the properties of Zn1?xCdxO films on glass substrates
  12. Gandarilla et al. (2003) Micro-structural characterization of annealed cadmium?zinc oxide thin films obtained by spray pyrolysis https://doi.org/10.1016/S0254-0584(02)00395-4
  13. Lee et al. (2003) Effects of surface roughness of substrates on the c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO films deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering 423(2) https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6090(02)00977-X
  14. Karyaoui et al. (2012) The porous nature of ZnO thin films deposited by sol?gel Spin-Coating technique https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/28/1/012019
  15. Ogawa and Fujihara (2007) Blue luminescence of MgZnO and CdZnO films deposited at low temperatures https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2756372
  16. Choi et al. (1996) Transparent conducting Zn1?xCdxO thin films prepared by the sol?gel process https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6090(96)08923-7
  17. Ilican et al. (2009) Photovoltaic solar cell properties of CdxZn1?xO films prepared by sol?gel method https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2008.10.022
  18. Maldonado et al. (2004) Indium-doped zinc oxide thin films deposited by chemical spray starting from zinc acetylacetonate: effect of the alcohol and substrate temperature https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2004.01.007
  19. Singh et al. (2011) Effect of post annealing temperature on structural and optical properties of ZnCdO thin films deposited by sol?gel method https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2011.10.096
  20. Khan et al. (2011) Optical and structural properties of ZnO thin films fabricated by sol-gel method?
  21. Khanlary and Isazadeh (2011) Structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films prepared by sol gel method? 6(9) https://doi.org/10.1049/mnl.2011.0408
  22. Muiva et al. (2011) Effect of doping concentration on the properties of aluminium doped zinc oxide thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis for transparent electrode applications https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2010.09.042
  23. Vijayalakshmi et al. (2008) Characterization of cadmium doped zinc oxide (Cd:ZnO) thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis method https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/41/24/245403
  24. Stenzel (2005) Springer-Verlag
  25. Kaur et al. (2013) Structural, optical and fluorescence properties of wet chemically synthesized ZnO:Pd2+ nanocrystals https://doi.org/10.1186/2228-5326-3-4
  26. Shakti and Gupta (2010) Structural and optical properties of sol-gel prepared ZnO thin film? 2(1) https://doi.org/10.5539/apr.v2n1p19
  27. Gayen et al. (2011) ZnO films prepared by modified sol-gel technique
  28. Ghodsi and Absalan (2010) Comparative study of ZnO thin films prepared by different sol-gel route? 118(4)