Open AccessEffects of aging time and annealing temperature on structural and optical properties of sol-gel ZnO thin films
Author(s) -
Jitao Li,
Dingyu Yang,
Xinghua Zhu
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aip advances
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 58
ISSN - 2158-3226
DOI - 10.1063/1.4985753
Subject(s) - wurtzite crystal structure , photoluminescence , annealing (glass) , materials science , thin film , ultraviolet , transmittance , sol gel , band gap , atomic force microscopy , optoelectronics , diffraction , analytical chemistry (journal) , nanotechnology , optics , composite material , chemistry , zinc , metallurgy , physics , chromatography
The ZnO thin films have been prepared by sol-gel method at different annealing temperatures and aging time. The structural properties of ZnO thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and atomic force microscope (AFM) images. The results indicated that the film possess a hexagonal wurtzite structure with preferred orientation along the (002) direction. The crystalline quality of films improved with increasing post-annealing temperature, while gradually worsened with prolonging aging time. The optical properties of ZnO thin films were studied by the ultra-violet transmittance (UV-Vis) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The variations of UV-Vis transmittance and energy gap accorded well with the tendency presented in XRD patterns and AFM images. The PL spectra appeared the apparent ultraviolet emission and visible emissions. As the annealing temperature increased, the ultraviolet and visible emissions of films enhanced and decreased respectively. However, as the sol aging time prolonged, the PL emission presented an opposite tendency
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