Synthesis of CdxZn1-xO nanostructure films using pulsed laser deposition technique

Abstract

The CdxZn1-xO thin films have been deposited on glass substrates at room temperature with different Cd contents (x= 0, 2%, 4% and 6 wt%) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. X-ray diffraction patterns evidenced that the films possess polycrystalline and a hexagonal ZnO structure for x=0, 2%, and 4% with a preferred orientation in the a−axis (101) direction. While the existence of hexagonal and cubic structure of CdxZn1-xO thin films was revealed for x= 6wt%. The compositional analysis of the films by EDX promoted the incorporation of Cd. The SEM images and the statistical distribution showed the films modulation with a reduction in the average particle size from 60 to 25 nm as the concentration of Cd increased. The optical band gap decreases from 3.34 eV to 2.65 eV and the absorption edge expanded to longer wavelength range (a red shift) with increasing of Cd content.