Rootlike Morphology of ZnO:Al Thin Film Deposited on Amorphous Glass Substrate by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films have been deposited onto a glass substrate by sol-gel spray coating method at atmospheric pressure. X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV-Vis spectrophotometer have been used to characterize the films. XRD spectra indicated that all prepared thin films presented the wurtzite hexagonal structure. SEM images exhibited rootlike morphology on the surface of thin films and the shortest root diameter was about 0.219 μm. The UV-Vis absorption spectra exhibited the absorption edges that were slightly shifted to the lower wavelength. From this result, the incorporation of aluminum into the ZnO involved a slight increase in the optical band-gap of films. The optical bands of films were 3.102 eV, 3.115 eV, 3.118 eV, 3.115 eV, 3.109 eV, and 3.109 eV for ZnO, ZnO:Al 2%, ZnO:Al 4%, ZnO:Al 6%, ZnO:Al 8%, and ZnO:Al 10%, respectively. Increase of Al doping concentration in ZnO films contributed to the increase of their optical band-gap which can be explained by the Burstein-Moss effect.