Correlation between crystallite size–optical gap energy and precursor molarities of ZnO thin films

Abstract

We investigated the structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films as an n-type semiconductor. The films were deposited at different precursor molarities using an ultrasonic spray method. In this paper we focused our attention on a new approach describing a correlation between the crystallite size and optical gap energy with the precursor molarity of ZnO thin films. The results show that the X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra revealed a preferred orientation of the crystallites along the c-axis. The maximum value of the crystallite size of the films is 63.99 nm obtained at 0.1 M. The films deposited with 0.1 M show lower absorption within the visible wavelength region. The optical gap energy increased from 3.08 to 3.37 eV with increasing precursor molarity of 0.05 to 0.1 M. The correlation between the structural and optical properties with the precursor molarity suggests that the crystallite size of the films is predominantly influenced by the band gap energy and the precursor molarity. The measurement of the crystallite size by the model proposed is equal to the experimental data. The minimum error value was estimated by Eq. (4) in the higher crystallinity.