Structural, optical and dielectric properties of chemical vapor transport based synthesis of rice-like nanostructured cadmium zinc oxide films

Abstract

The cadmium zinc oxide (Cd-ZnO) films are synthesized on glass substrate at 200 sccm argon gas flow rate by chemical vapor transport technique. The synthesized Cd-ZnO films are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Raman, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV spectrometers. The XRD patterns exhibits the development of various diffraction planes related to Zn, ZnO and CdO phases thereby confirms the formation of polycrystalline Cd-ZnO films. The structural parameters like crystallinity, crystallite size, d-spacing, microstrains, dislocation density, degree of distortion, atomic packing fraction, lattice parameter, bond length and atomic packing factor are associated with increasing weights of Cd powder. The formation of chemical bonding, substitution of Cd+ into ZnO are confirmed by Raman, FTIR and SEM analysis. Red shift in absorption edge and increasing transmittance (> 90%) are associated with increasing weights of Cd powder. Refractive index (2.58–2.63) and energy band gap (3.11–2.87 eV) are increased/decreased with increasing weights of Cd powder. The change in optical, electrical and dielectric parameters of synthesized Cd-ZnO films are strongly associated with increasing weights of Cd powder. Results show that the synthesized Cd-ZnO films can be used for optoelectronics devices.