Effect of Al and N doping on structural and optical properties of sol-gel derived ZnO thin films

Abstract

In this work, ZnO, N-doped ZnO(NZO), Al-doped ZnO(AZO) and Al, N-doped ZnO(ANZO) thin films were prepared by the sol-gel spin-coating method based on zinc acetate dihydrate(CH 3COO) 2Zn2H 2O, Aluminium acetate (C 4H 7AlO 5), Ammonium acetate(CH 3COONH 4), absolute ethanol (C 2H 5OH) and diethanolamine ((HOCH 2CH 2) 2NH, DEA). All films were spin-coated on borosilicate substate for several coating repetition followed by annealing process at 550 C for 4 hr in air. The structural properties and surface morphologies of films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM). The optical properties of the films were interpreted from their transmission spectra using UV-VIS spectrophotometer. © 2012 IEEE.