Characterization of Mn doped ZnO wrinkle-network nanostructured thin films deposited by sol-gel spin coating technique

Abstract

A wrinkle-network structure of Mn doped ZnO is presented in this paper. The undoped and Mn doped ZnO thin film samples have been prepared on ITO coated glass substrates by sol-gel spin coating technique as it is a simple and lowcost method to deposit semiconductor thin films. High resolution X-ray diffraction technique confirms the formation of hexagonal wurtzite structure with diffraction pattern corresponding to ZnO. Mn related phases have not been observed within the detection limit of HR-XRD. The incorporation of Mn dopant in the sample has been confirmed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Both the undoped and Mn doped samples have high optical transmittance in the wavelength range of 300 nm – 800 nm, with a maximum of 88% as recorded by UV-VIS spectroscopy. There is an increase in the bandgap of ZnO thin films by the introduction of Mn dopants which has been calculated by Tauc plot.