Study Of The Structure, Optical Properties, Surface Morphology And Topology Of Zno Thin Films Grown By Sol-Gel On Silicon Substrates

Polycrystalline visible light photoluminescent zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have been grown on silicon substrates by the dip immersion sol-gel technique at low sintering temperature. The optical properties of the films were analyzed by UV-vis spectroscopy. The structural properties were measured with x-ray diffraction. The results show that the films are polycrystalline and have hexagonal wurtzite structure. The estimated band gap of the samples by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy is in good agreement with the value measured by UV-vis reflectance spectroscopy and is near 3.2 eV. The surface topography was observed with atomic force microscopy. The morphology of the samples was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy was used to make chemical composition measurements, the results indicate that the sample is stoichiometric. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy shows a strong band in the blue-green region of the spectrum, which makes these films interesting to optoelectronic applications.