Investigation on the Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Thin Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared by sol-gel spin coating technique, which were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), NKD thin film analysis system and fluorescence spectrophotometer. The results show that ZnO thin films with the each layer thickness of 80 nm present obvious c-axis orientation. With the increase of coating layers, the c-axis orientation characteristic weakens. The reason is considered that the growth mode of ZnO thin films transforms from layer growth to island growth. For the ZnO thin film with 4 layers, it has a compact surface and a uniform particle size of approximately 50 nm, and the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum primarily consists of two PL emission bands, one is a strong and narrow ultraviolet (UV) emission band, another is a weak and broad luminescence emission band from 400 nm to 650 nm. The average transmittance in the visible range is beyond 90%. A optical band gap of 3.26 eV, slightly less than the intrinsic band gap width of 3.37 eV, is obtained by Tauc plotting method. The defects, such as Zn or O vacancies, grain boundaries, are considered to be the main factors causing this situation.