Improved growth quality of the ZnO thin films on Au nano-particles/p-Si

In this study, gold thin films were grown 5 nm, 10nm, 20nm thicknesses on quartz substrate by thermal evaporation. In order to obtain Au nanoparticle films were annealed 3h and 6h at 600 °C or 800 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. After annealing gold nanoparticles were obtained varying in sizes averaged between 12-230 nm. Absorption in shift between 500nm-750nm has been observed. Au gold nanoparticles were also grown on p-Si substrate. ZnO thin films were grown by electrochemically on both gold nanoparticle/p-Si and reference pSi substrates. Characterizations of the ZnO thin films has shown that the thin films grown on Au nanoparticles has better crystal orientation, bigger grain sizes and higher absorption coefficient and device performance.