Systematic investigation on the synergistic effect of gallium and boron co-doping on the properties of ZnO thin films

Herein, gallium and boron co-doped ZnO thin films of varying percentages of Ga and B doping content were successfully deposited on glass substrates via spin coating method. The impact of doping content on structural, morphological, optical, and electrical features of co-doped ZnO films was systematically probed in this work. The characterization results demonstrate that the doping content has a profound effect on the features of co-doped ZnO thin films. The X-ray diffraction patterns confirm the polycrystalline nature of the films with varying diffraction peak intensities. AFM images disclose the smooth surface of the films with low surface roughness. UV–Vis-NIR transmittance spectra reveal that the deposited films exhibit high transparency over 86 % in range of 400-800 nm wavelength with excellent optical properties. The electrical resistance measurements indicate that co-doped ZnO thin films having doping concentrations of 2.5 at. % of Ga and 0.5 at. % of B has the lower resistivity, and the resistivity of the samples are strongly affected by the doping content. The obtained knowledge from this study could be important for the fabrication of high-performance optoelectronic device based on ZnO thin films.