Abstract
Effects of Annealing Temperature on Structural and Optoelectronic Properties of Zr-doped ZnO Thin Films for Photosensors
Highlights
To meet the requirements of high-performance photosensors and solar cell applications, the development of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) with enhanced electrical and optical characteristics is necessary.[1,2,3] Zinc oxide has been widely utilized for domestic and industrial applications such as liquid crystal displays, light-emitting diodes,(4) and sensors.[5,6,7,8,9] Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were the first materials to be widely used in these electrical devices.ZnO is a TCO with a wide direct band gap of ~3.37 eV at room temperature (RT) and has low cost and toxicity, low electrical resistivity, and high optical efficiency
The intensity of the (002) peak increased significantly with annealing temperature from as-deposited to 400 °C. These results indicate that the grain size of the Zr-doped ZnO (ZZO) films increased with annealing temperature owing to the reduced structural distortion, but the preferential orientation of the ZZO films was not affected by the annealing temperature
The free carrier concentration increased with annealing temperature, which contributed to the occupation of interstitial positions in the ZnO matrix
Summary
To meet the requirements of high-performance photosensors and solar cell applications, the development of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) with enhanced electrical and optical characteristics is necessary.[1,2,3] Zinc oxide has been widely utilized for domestic and industrial applications such as liquid crystal displays, light-emitting diodes,(4) and sensors.[5,6,7,8,9] Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were the first materials to be widely used in these electrical devices.ZnO is a TCO with a wide direct band gap of ~3.37 eV at room temperature (RT) and has low cost and toxicity, low electrical resistivity, and high optical efficiency. Various growth techniques[10,11,12] and metal elemental doping have been investigated with the aim of enhancing the electrical and optical properties of ZnO thin films. Elements such as Al,(13–15) Ga,(16,17) Cu,(18) and Mo[19] have been doped because the resulting ternary oxides can have useful characteristics that binary oxides cannot provide.[20] ITO thin films are not stable in a hightemperature environment with temperatures above 400 °C.(21) In contrast, it has been reported that the electrical and chemical properties of Zr-doped ZnO (ZZO) thin films are stable in high-. We hope to develop highly efficient thin-film materials for photosensor and gas sensor applications
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