Structural and blue emission properties of Al-doped ZnO nanorod array thin films grown by hydrothermal method

Abstract

ZnO seed layers were deposited on a quartz substrate using the sol-gel method, and Al-doped ZnO (AZO) nanorod array thin films were grown on the ZnO seed layers by the hydrothermal method with different Al concentrations ranging from 0 to 2.0 at. %. The structural and blue emission properties of the ZnO and AZO nanorod array thin films were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction, Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL). Al doping greatly affects the morphology of AZO nanorod array thin films. For an Al concentration of 2.0 at. %, it can be clearly seen from the SEM image that the hexagonal shape has changed into a prism-like shape. In the PL spectra, it is clear that the intensity ratio of the near-band-edge emission to the deep-level emission (DLE) increases as the Al concentration increases up to 2.0 at. %. The DLE peak (about 2.80 eV) in the blue emission region is found for the AZO nanorod array thin films. The transmittance spectra show that as compared to the ZnO nanorod array thin films, the AZO nanorod array thin films exhibited significantly improved transmittance in the visible region and a blue shift of the absorption edge.