The presence of Fe and Mg ions does not affect the formation of high-quality surface layer in Zn1-xAlxO thin film

Abstract

In this work, Al-doped, Fe-doped, Mg-doped, Al-Fe and Al-Mg co-doped ZnO thin films were obtained by a spin-coating method. It has been found that Aluminum chloride as a doping source can induce the formation of a high-quality surface layer on the surface of the ZnO films. Here we demonstrated that the presence of Fe and Mg ions does not affect the formation of high-quality surface layer in Al-doped ZnO films, and all samples show strong UV emission properties. In addition, the Al-doping with high concentration can promote the formation of the high-quality surface layer without causing the appearance of impurity phases such as alumina or zinc aluminate. The structure, composition and luminescence behavior of the Al-Fe and Al-Mg co-doped ZnO thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and photoluminescence, respectively. The results show that the ZnO films with high-quality surface layer deposited by sol-gel method have potential applications in short-wavelength light-emitting devices.