Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Oxide Layers Produced by Pulsed Laser Deposition Method

Nanoscale Research Letters, Apr 2017

The structural, optical, and electrical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) layers manufactured at different process conditions were investigated. ZnO epitaxial layers were grown on silicon, glass, and ITO/glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The influence of power beam, substrate temperature, and deposition time on films properties was analysed. Morphological features of the film surface were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. A structural study shown planar orientation of films at low temperatures of substrate, but the columnar type of growth originated in temperature enhances. Electrical properties were determined in the temperature range 300–500 K. It was shown that the type of films conductivity is metallic and it is limited by charge transfer across grain boundaries.

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Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Oxide Layers Produced by Pulsed Laser Deposition Method

Wisz et al. Nanoscale Research Letters Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Oxide Layers Produced by Pulsed Laser Deposition Method G. Wisz 1 I. Virt 1 2 P. Sagan 1 P. Potera 1 R. Yavorskyi 0 1 0 Vasyl Stefanyk PreCarpathian National University , T. Shevchenko, 57, 76018 Ivano-Frankivsk , Ukraine 1 Rzeszow University , Rejtana 16C, 35-959 Rzeszow , Poland 2 Drohobych State University , I. Franko, 24, 82100 Drohobych , Ukraine The structural, optical, and electrical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) layers manufactured at different process conditions were investigated. ZnO epitaxial layers were grown on silicon, glass, and ITO/glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The influence of power beam, substrate temperature, and deposition time on films properties was analysed. Morphological features of the film surface were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. A structural study shown planar orientation of films at low temperatures of substrate, but the columnar type of growth originated in temperature enhances. Electrical properties were determined in the temperature range 300-500 K. It was shown that the type of films conductivity is metallic and it is limited by charge transfer across grain boundaries. Thin film; Zinc oxide; Photoconduction of ZnO; Conductive thin films; Pulse laser deposition - Background Zinc oxide is one of the most important group II?VI semiconductor materials. It is a wide-bandgap oxide semiconductor with a direct energy gap of about 3.37 eV. ZnO has high chemical and mechanical stability; furthermore, it is nontoxic and widespread in nature. Recently, transparent-conducting oxides on the base of ZnO have been studied well [1?3]. ZnO is one of the most promising materials for the fabrication of the next generation of optoelectronic devices in the UV region and optical or display devices [4]. As a matter of fact, simultaneous occurrence of both high optical transmittances in the visible range and low resistivity make ZnO an important material for manufacturing of heat mirrors used in gas stoves, conducting coatings in aircraft glasses to avoid surface icing, and thin film electrodes in amorphous silicon solar cells. ZnO belongs to hexagonal wurtzite class; it is a semiconducting, piezoelectric, and optical waveguide material used in sensors, surface acoustic devices, transparent electrodes, and solar cells [5?7]. Controlling of ZnO physical properties depending on various factors, such as doping and temperature growth, is important for efficient function of devices on the base of ZnO structures. The existence of both (n and p) conduction types is of fundamental importance for application in light-emitting devices [8]. The nanostructures like nanotubes, nanorods, nanowalls, nanofibers and high-quality undoped and doped ZnO thin films have been grown with plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, vapor transport deposition method, vacuum arc deposition metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), sol?gel process, and spray pyrolysis [9, 10]. Such nanotubes, nanowires, nanoribbons, and nanofibers have deserved special attention for their potential applications in applied fields such as field emission displays, optical waveguides, solar cells, ultraviolet photodetectors, optical switches, and gas sensing [1?8]. The chemical bath deposition and sol?gel technique are also well known methods of preparation of ZnO thin films. Among these methods, spray pyrolysis is useful in wide range of applications [11, 12]. This method is cheaper, simpler and permits to obtain films for optoelectronic applications with required properties. Structural, electrical, and optical properties dependence on thickness ? The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. of ZnO films has been investigated. The unique and fascinating properties of nanostructured materials have triggered tremendous motivation among scientists to explore the possibilities of using them in technological applications. In particular, the electronic and optical properties of nanostructure materials have been of great interest because of their potential applications in the fabrication of microelectronic and optoelectronic devices [13]. In this paper, the electrical, structural, and optical properties of ZnO nanostructured thin film deposited by PLD method and their changes during annealing have been investigated. Methods The ZnO films grown on silicon, glass, and ITO/glass were deposited by the PLD method. The YAG: Nd3+ laser with the 532 nm (II harmonics) wavelength, 6 ns pulse time, and 16 J/cm2 fluence was used. The laser (...truncated)


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G. Wisz, I. Virt, P. Sagan, P. Potera, R. Yavorskyi. Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of Zinc Oxide Layers Produced by Pulsed Laser Deposition Method, Nanoscale Research Letters, 2017, pp. 253, Volume 12, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/s11671-017-2033-9