Enhancement of electrical conductivity of sol–gel doped ZnO films through Zr doping and vacuum annealing. (20th March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rajkumar, P. V.; Ravichandran, K.; Karthika, K.; Sakthivel, B.; Muralidharan, B.
• Is Part Of: Materials technology. Volume 31:Number 4(2016)
• Page Start: 234
• Page End: 240
• Publication Date: 2016-03-20
• Subjects: Zr doped ZnO film -- Vacuum annealing -- Sol–gel -- Electrical properties -- Optical properties; Materials -- Periodicals; Materials science -- Periodicals; Materials -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; 620.1105
• DOI: 10.1179/1753555715Y.0000000047
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1066-7857

Abstract

Abstract : Undoped and Zr doped ZnO thin films were deposited onto the glass substrates using sol–gel spin coating method. A set of deposited films were annealed in vacuum ambience at 350°C, and their structural, optical, electrical, photoluminescence and surface morphological properties are compared with that of the as deposited films. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that all the films fit well with the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO with a preferential growth along the (002) plane. All the films showed high transmittance in the visible region, and the average transmittance is found to be >90%. The electrical resistivity was minimum (4.3 × 10 − 3 Ω cm) for the annealed film prepared from starting solutions having Zr doping level of 2 at-%, which is one order of magnitude lower than that of its as deposited counterpart. The photoluminescence and SEM results substantiate the discussion on electrical resistance values obtained.