Indium-doped Zinc Oxide Research Articles

Wettability of the Cotton and Polyester Fabrics Coated by Nanostructured Indium-doped Zinc Oxide Layers

Wettability of the Cotton and Polyester Fabrics Coated by Nanostructured Indium-doped Zinc Oxide Layers

A Proposed All ZnO Based Thin Film Transistor For UV-B Detection

This article demonstrates that ZnO can be used both as the insulating dielectric and the channel by appropriately mixing with lithium and indium, respectively. The ion-conducting lithium zinc oxide (Li2ZnO2) as the dielectric and indium zinc oxide (IZO) as the channel used to fabricate thin-film transistors operating in accumulation mode are derived using the solution-processable method. The novelty of the structure is that both dielectric and channel are made up of ZnO, which provide the possibility of least interface trap states with very high capacitive coupling (318 nF/cm2) makes the device more attractive for low power electronics. The fabricated devices exhibit low operational voltage (≤2V) with high carrier mobility. Indium doped-ZnO is a large-bandgap material that can be utilized for narrowband UV-B (310 nm) detection, for narrowband phototherapy to treat certain skin diseases.

Impact of indium doping on the anti-biofilm activity of ZnO thin films against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

The proposed research aims to discover the anti-biofilm activity of pure Zinc Oxide and Indium doped Zinc Oxide (In–ZnO) thin films by varying doping concentration of Indium. Thin films of ZnO and In doped Zinc Oxide was successfully synthesized by resistive thermal vacuum deposition technique. Physical property, like the crystallinity and orientation of the deposited thin films, was examined by XRD analysis. Scanning electron microscopy of ZnO and In–ZnO thin film reveals morphological characteristics. Whereas, HRTEM confirmed the polycrystalline nature of thin films while EDX confirmed element composition. AFM shows that the roughness of thin films increase as doping concentration of In increase in ZnO. An improved result of anti-biofilm activity was examined on Indium doped zinc oxide (In–ZnO) thin-film under an optical microscope against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus . • In–ZnO thin films. • Roughness of thin films. • Anti-biofilm activity.

Post-heat treatment effect on the properties of indium doped zinc oxide nanocrystals produced by the sol-gel method

Indium-doped zinc oxide (In:ZnO) nanocrystals are successfully produced by a simple refluxed sol-gel technique. The influence of post-heat treatment/ annealing temperatures on the structure, morphology, optical and luminescence properties of nanostructures was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy dispersion X-ray spectroscope (EDS), UV–Vis and photoluminescence spectroscopies (PL). The XRD results revealed that the synthesized In:ZnO materials are nanocrystalline with a predominant hexagonal wurtzite structure. The average crystallite sizes and lattice constants of the In:ZnO nanoparticles increase with an increase in annealing temperature. SEM micrographs confirmed the nanostructure of the material and showed that the morphologies of In:ZnO nanoparticles varied from prism-like to spindle-like and then to disk-like structures. The reflectance band edge shifted towards longer wavelength while the band gap energy decreased with an increase in annealing temperature. In addition, the PL spectra show a sharp UV and broad yellow-orange emissions in the visible range that shifts slightly due to the influence of annealing temperature. The results illustrate that an optimum property of In:ZnO nanomaterial can be produced when the samples are annealed in the temperature range of 500 to 600 °C.

Superior NO2 Sensing of MOF-Derived Indium-Doped ZnO Porous Hollow Cages.

Highly sensitive semiconductor gas sensors hold great potential for applications in trace gas detection. Reliable detection of ppb-level NO2 is crucial for environmental monitoring, which however still remains a challenge. In this work, we demonstrated ultrahigh NO2 sensitivity of indium-doped ZnO porous hollow cages. Doping of In into ZnO was accomplished via a facile one-pot MOF encapsulation-calcination route, which led to remarkably enhanced NO2 sensing performance. In-doped ZnO exhibited a large response of 3.7 to 10 ppb NO2, an ultrahigh sensitivity of 187.9 ppm-1, and a limit of detection of 0.2 ppb, outperforming state-of-the-art ZnO-based NO2 sensors. The superior NO2 sensing properties were attributed to a synergy of excellent gas accessibility of the porous hollow structure, abundant adsorption sites, and electronic sensitization by In doping. Our findings could be extended to design other porous doped ZnO oxides for high performance gas sensors and other applications.

Study of Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Fabricated Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistors with In-Situ Hydrogen Plasma Treatment.

Amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) has been studied extensively for their perspective applications in next generation active-matrix displays such as liquid crystal displays and flat-panel displays, due to its better field-effect mobility (>10 cm²/V · S), larger Ion/Ioff ratio (>106), and better stability electrical. Hydrogen is known as shallow donors for n-type (channel) oxide semiconductors (Dong, J.J., et al. 2010. Effects of hydrogen plasma treatment on the electrical and optical properties of Zno films: Identification of hydrogen donors in ZnO. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2, pp.1780-1784), and it is also effective passivator for traps (Tsao, S.W., et al., 2010. Hydrogen-induced improvements in electrical characteristics of a-IGZO thin-film transistors. Solid-State Electron, 54, pp.1497-1499). In this study, In-Situ hydrogen plasma is applied to deposit IGZO channel. With atmospheric-pressure PECVD (AP-PECVD), IGZO thin film can be deposited without vacuum system, large area manufacturing, and cost reducing (Chang, K.M., et al., 2011. Transparent conductive indium-doped zinc oxide films prepared by atmospheric pressure plasma jet. Thin Solid Films, 519, pp.5114-5117). The results show that with appropriate flow ratio of Ar/H₂ plasma treatment, the a-IGZO TFT device exhibits better performance with mobility (μFE) 19.7 cm²/V · S, threshold voltage (VT) 1.18 V, subthreshold swing (SS) 81 mV/decade, and Ion/Ioff ratio 5.35×107.

High-Mobility In2O3:H Electrodes for Four-Terminal Perovskite/CuInSe2 Tandem Solar Cells.

Four-terminal (4-T) tandem solar cells (e.g., perovskite/CuInSe2 (CIS)) rely on three transparent conductive oxide electrodes with high mobility and low free carrier absorption in the near-infrared (NIR) region. In this work, a reproducible In2O3:H (IO:H) film deposition process is developed by independently controlling H2 and O2 gas flows during magnetron sputtering, yielding a high mobility value up to 129 cm2 V–1 s–1 in highly crystallized IO:H films annealed at 230 °C. Optimization of H2 and O2 partial pressures further decreases the crystallization temperature to 130 °C. By using a highly crystallized IO:H film as the front electrode in NIR-transparent perovskite solar cell (PSC), a 17.3% steady-state power conversion efficiency and an 82% average transmittance between 820 and 1300 nm are achieved. In combination with an 18.1% CIS solar cell, a 24.6% perovskite/CIS tandem device in 4-T configuration is demonstrated. Optical analysis suggests that an amorphous IO:H film (without postannealing) and a partially crystallized IO:H film (postannealed at 150 °C), when used as a rear electrode in a NIR-transparent PSC and a front electrode in a CIS solar cell, respectively, can outperform the widely used indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) electrodes, leading to a 1.38 mA/cm2 short-circuit current (Jsc) gain in the bottom CIS cell of 4-T tandems.

Highly Conductive Zinc Oxide Based Transparent Conductive Oxide Films Prepared Using RF Plasma Sputtering Under Reducing Atmosphere

The spectral properties and colour functions of a radio frequency (RF)-based sputtering plasma source was monitored during consecutive sputter deposition of zinc doped indium oxide (IZO) thin films under argon and argon/hydrogen mix. The effect of target exposure to the hydrogen gas on charge density/mobility and spectral transmittance of the deposited films was investigated. We demonstrate that consecutive exposure to the hydrogen gas during the deposition process progressively affects the properties of thin films with a certain degree of continuous improvement in electrical conductivity while demonstrating that reverting to only argon from argon/ hydrogen mix follows a complex pathway, which has not been reported previously in such detail to our knowledge. We then demonstrate that this effect can be used to prepare highly conductive zinc oxide thin films without indium presence and as such eliminating the need for the expensive indium addition. We shall demonstrate that complexity observed in emission spectra can be simply identified by monitoring the colour of the plasma through its colour functions, making this technique a simple real-time monitoring method for the deposition process.

Indium-Doped ZnO Porous Cages Derived from ZIF-8 for Ppb-Level NO2 Detection

Introduction Nowadays, environment, health and safety problems caused by NO2 are attracting more and more attention. Extensive efforts have been made to investigate and develop various novel detectors including resistance-type sensors, mixed potential sensors and optical sensors to satisfy the increasing demand of NO2 detection. Among these different kinds of detectors, resistance-type gas sensors, primarily based on metal oxide semiconductors, have received wide attention due to their high sensitivity, fast response, and low cost. As one of typical metal oxide semiconductors, ZnO has been widely investigated for detecting NO2 gas [1]. However, NO2 detection at the ppb level is rarely achieved for ZnO-based sensors. Recent studies have shown that gas-sensing properties of ZnO are highly related with the microstructure and can be further enhanced via selective doping [2]. Among different doping elements, indium (In) has attracted great attention. The advantages of In-doping are the followings: In2O3 is an important material for NO2sensing; In3+ (80 pm) can partly substitute Zn2+ (74 pm) due to their similar ionic radii, generating more free electrons. In this work, pure and In-doped ZnO porous cages were synthesized by a ZIF-8-based template method and their gas-sensing performance was systematically studied. Method In-doped ZnO porous cages were prepared via a one-pot synthesis route. Briefly, 4.05 g of Zinc nitrate hexahydrate was dissolved into 200 mL methanol. Appropriate amounts of Indium(III) acetylacetonate and 200 mL of a methanol solution containing 3.34 g 2-methylimidazole were added under stirring. The resulting solutions were stirred for 20 min and aged for 18 h at room temperature. After precipitation, obtained ZIF-8 derivativeswere washed with methanol via centrifugation. The precipitates were further dried at 60 °C for 24 h and calcined at 400 °C for 3 h to obtain pristine or In-doped ZnO powders. The obtained samples are hereafter denoted as In/ZnO-X, where X represents the nominal In/Zn atomic ratio (multiplied by 100) used during the synthesis, e.g., In/ZnO-0 for un-doped ZnO, In/ZnO-2 for In/Zn of 2.0 at.%, In/ZnO-10 for In/Zn of 10.0 at.%. Results and Conclusions Typical SEM images of the samples are presented in Fig. 1. For pristine ZnO, well-separated nanocages were observed (Fig. 1a). As can be seen from Fig1b-c, the size of the nanocages appeared larger with the increase of In doping content. Fig. 2a shows the electrical resistance for the fabricated gas sensors measured in air. Typical semiconductor behavior was observed, i.e., resistance decreased as temperature rose. Furthermore, the resistance remarkably decreased with increase of Indium content. Fig. 2b presents the temperature dependence of the gas response to 10 ppm NO2 for all the obtained sensors. For the un-doped sample (In/Zn-0), the response first increased with temperature, reached a maximum at 300 °C, and then decreased. The increasing addition content of In to ZnO resulted in significant increase of response to NO2. For In/ZnO-10, the response was 339 at 300 °C, 22 times higher than that of In/ZnO-0. Fig. 2c depicts sensor response as a function of NO2 concentration for In-doped ZnO sensors at 300 °C. It can be clearly seen that the gas response increased with increase of NO2 concentration for all the sensors, and at each concentration the response for In/ZnO-10 was much higher than those of the other sensors. Furthermore, the gas response varied almost linearly with the NO2 concentration until the measured concentration exceeded 1 ppm. This linear dependence is favorable for calibration and determination of the gas concentration in practical applications. Fig. 2d depicts the dynamic response and recovery curves for the In/ZnO-10 sensor in the concentration range of 10-100 ppb, which were measured by alternately exposing the sensor to ambient air and air/NO2 mixture at the optimal operating temperature of 300 °C. The response to 10 ppb NO2 was 3.7, which identified the excellent performance of In/ZnO for ppb-level NO2 detection. Unlike the greatly increased NO2response, the response to the main interfering gas, H2S, only slightly increased with In doping, indicating marked increase of the NO2 selectivity.

Synergetic effects of aluminium and indium dopants in the physical properties of ZnO thin films via spray pyrolysis

We report a comparative study of various physical properties of Aluminium and Indium co-doped Zinc Oxide (AIZO) thin films with singly doped films, namely Aluminium doped ZnO (AZO) and Indium doped ZnO (IZO) thin films. Thin films were deposited by Spray Pyrolysis technique at a substrate temperature 425 °C and the concentration of the dopants Aluminium (Al) and Indium (In) were varied from 0.5 to 2 at.% in an equimolar manner for co doping. The properties of the co doped films (AIZO) are compared with AZO 3 and IZO 3 thin films. The physical properties such as crystallinity, morphology, topography, luminescence, optical and electrical properties of the ZnO films with respect to the dopant concentrations are investigated. The (101) peak of ZnO was found to become prominent with increasing doping concentrations. At lower doping concentrations, the morphology was seen to be flower-like, whereas pyramidal grains were observed for highly doped films. The AIZO 1.5 film was seen to be highly transparent in the visible region and it showed an electrical resistivity of ρ=3.56×10−2Ωcm. The transmittance of films was found to increase with doping percentages and was comparable to that of AZO 3 and IZO 3 at high doping. The properties of the co-doped films were seen to be more AZO 3 - like at lower doping concentrations and it tends to be more like IZO 3 at higher doping percentages.

Effects of Annealing on Characteristics of Cu2ZnSnSe4/CH3NH3PbI3/ZnS/IZO Nanostructures for Enhanced Photovoltaic Solar Cells.

This paper presents new photovoltaic solar cells with Cu2ZnSnSe4/CH3NH3PbI3(MAPbI3)/ZnS/IZO/Ag nanostructures on bi-layer Mo/FTO (fluorine-doped tin oxide) glasssubstrates. The hole-transporting layer, active absorber layer, electron-transporting layer, transparent-conductive oxide layer, and top electrode-metal contact layer, were made of Cu2ZnSnSe4, MAPbI3 perovskite, zincsulfide, indium-doped zinc oxide, and silver, respectively. The active absorber MAPbI3 perovskite film was deposited on Cu2ZnSnSe4 hole-transporting layer that has been annealed at different temperatures. TheseCu2ZnSnSe4 filmsexhibitedthe morphology with increased crystal grain sizesand reduced pinholes, following the increased annealing temperature. When the perovskitefilm thickness was designed at 700 nm, the Cu2ZnSnSe4 hole-transporting layer was 160 nm, and the IZO (indium-zinc oxide) at 100 nm, and annealed at 650 °C, the experimental results showed significant improvements in the solar cell characteristics. The open-circuit voltage was increased to 1.1 V, the short-circuit current was improved to 20.8 mA/cm2, and the device fill factor was elevated to 76.3%. In addition, the device power-conversion efficiency has been improved to 17.4%. The output power Pmax was as good as 1.74 mW and the device series-resistance was 17.1 Ω.

Characterization and device application of indium doped ZnO homojunction prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

Undoped and Indium doped Zinc Oxide (IZO) nanocrystalline thin films were synthesized via RF magnetron sputtering techniques using home-made cold pressed powder targets. The morphology, crystal structure, elemental analyses were studied using FESEM, AFM, XRD, EDS and XPS techniques. All the films showed hexagonal wurtzite structure, and revealed appreciable variations in (100), (002) and (101) peak intensities with indium doping. The incorporation of In into the ZnO films was confirmed by both EDS and XPS measurements. XPS and Photoluminescence (PL) studies of doped films demonstrated significant reduction of oxygen vacancies (Vo) after incorporation of indium in ZnO lattice at substitutional sites. PL spectra showed convoluted peaks, which correspond to band to band transitions and defect level emissions. The optical studies showed high transmittance of over 90% in the UV–vis region and exhibited the absorption edge near 380 nm. The band gap energy of the films increased from 3.27 eV to 3.42 eV, with In content. In addition, typical rectifying I–V characteristics of SZO/IZO homojunction layers were demonstrated.

Oxygen defect-rich In-doped ZnO nanostructure for enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity

Developing high-efficiency photocatalyst for the degradation of environmental pollutants under visible light is ideal. In this study, indium-doped zinc oxide with rich oxygen vacancy defects (In–OV–ZnO) was successfully fabricated by using a facile solution method followed by annealing process. The morphological, structural, and optical properties of the as-synthesized samples were studied. The X-ray diffraction measurements revealed the positions of the main peaks in the synthesized samples with In3+ ions and oxygen vacancies were slightly shifted. The analysis of SEM and TEM showed that the In–OV–ZnO samples were in the nanoscale regime (20-50 nm) with hexagonal crystalline morphology. The UV–vis DRS spectra showed that In–OV–ZnO samples had the band gap value of 3.14 eV. Based on photocurrent analysis and photoluminescence studies, the oxygen vacancy of In–OV–ZnO favored the electron–hole pairs’ separation. Photocatalytic studies revealed that the In–OV–ZnO samples display better photocatalytic activities of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation, which exhibited maximum degradations of 96.84% and 90.05%, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effect of the oxygen vacancy defects and the In3+ ions favoring efficient electron–hole separation, which provided several active sites. This work develops a study to enable an efficient and cost-effective design of novel photocatalysts and offers insight into the influence of surface defects in enhancing photocatalytic activity.

Physical properties of indium zinc oxide and aluminium zinc oxide thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

Indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) and aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were grown by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering onto optical glass substrates and their structural, morphological, and optical properties were discussed in terms of varying the sputtering power as 40 W, 60 W, 80 W, and 100 W. No heating substrate or any post-thermal treatment was performed. The structural features were analyzed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and revealed the amorphous phase for IZO samples, while the AZO thin films inherited the Wurtzite structure of zinc oxide. The morphological properties were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), in tapping mode and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The AFM images showed relatively uniform and smooth surfaces for all prepared structures. The optical transmission spectra proved the excellent theoretical values of transparency for metallic oxides in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. ∼60% for IZO and ∼70% for AZO. The obtained results showed that even without any thermal treatment the structural, morphological, and optical properties of IZO and AZO thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering are similar with those for samples subjected to medium or high temperatures.

Stretchable and colorless freestanding microwire arrays for transparent solar cells with flexibility

Transparent solar cells (TSCs) are emerging devices that combine the advantages of visible transparency and light-to-electricity conversion. Currently, existing TSCs are based predominantly on organics, dyes, and perovskites; however, the rigidity and color-tinted transparent nature of those devices strongly limit the utility of the resulting TSCs for real-world applications. Here, we demonstrate a flexible, color-neutral, and high-efficiency TSC based on a freestanding form of n-silicon microwires (SiMWs). Flat-tip SiMWs with controllable spacing are fabricated via deep-reactive ion etching and embedded in a freestanding transparent polymer matrix. The light transmittance can be tuned from ~10 to 55% by adjusting the spacing between the microwires. For TSCs, a heterojunction is formed with a p-type polymer in the top portion of the n-type flat-tip SiMWs. Ohmic contact with an indium-doped ZnO film occurs at the bottom, and the side surface has an Al2O3 passivation layer. Furthermore, slanted-tip SiMWs are developed by a novel solvent-assisted wet etching method to manipulate light absorption. Finite-difference time-domain simulation revealed that the reflected light from slanted-tip SiMWs helps light-matter interactions in adjacent microwires. The TSC based on the slanted-tip SiMWs demonstrates 8% efficiency at a visible transparency of 10% with flexibility. This efficiency is the highest among Si-based TSCs and comparable with that of state-of-the-art neutral-color TSCs based on organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite and organics. Moreover, unlike others, the stretchable and transparent platform in this study is promising for future TSCs.

The effect of indium doping on photovoltaic properties of chemically synthesized zinc oxide thin-film electrodes

Photovoltaic (PV) performance of chemically synthesized indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) nanorod electrodes has been investigated by photocurrent density-voltage (J-V). The indium (In) concentration was varied from 2 to 6 at.% for IZO. The J-V measurements as performed under a dark condition and a simulated white light of 80 mW/cm2 confirmed increase in PV performance with the IZO electrodes, making a peak with the 4 at.% In concentration. The investigated properties of the synthesized In-doped ZnO nanorod electrodes (structural and optical) strongly agreed with the PV results and well support the enhanced PV performance of the IZO electrodes. This clearly indicates that IZO electrodes would be preferred against undoped ones in PV solar cell application.

Preparation and thermochromic behaviors of polydiacetylene/indium or gallium doped zinc oxide nanocomposites

Polydiacetylene (PDA) is one of the well-known thermochromic materials having a high potential in applications such as displays and sensor technology. Many research groups have been working on controlling thermochromic reversibility of PDA-based materials. In this research, the colorimetric response of PDA assembled with indium or gallium doped zinc oxide was studied with various concentrations. Indium or gallium doped zinc oxide was prepared by hydrothermal method. The compositions of 5, 10, and 15% of indium and 5, 12, and 24% gallium, respectively. Undoped zinc oxide and gallium doped zinc oxide exhibited the nanoflowers composed of nanosheets while the indium doped zinc oxide showed the nanorod structure and combined to be nanoflowers. Monomer of PDA composing 10, 12-pentacosadiynoic acid in ethanol was mixed with indium and gallium doped zinc oxide precursor solution at 20% weight. Ultra-violet light source was used to photo-polymerize for five minutes after incubation at low temperature for a prolong cooling. For nanocomposites of poly(PCDA) and undoped and gallium doped zinc oxide, the color of nanocomposite changed from blue to light-purple at above 70°C and the color can be reversible when cooling down to room temperature. However, for nanocomposites of PCDA and indium doped zinc oxide, the color change from blue to light-purple at above 50°C then become red than those in gallium doped PDA nanocomposite. In addition, the color of PCDA nanocomposite with indium doped zinc oxide cannot be reversible back to the original color.

Analysis of structural, optical and electrical properties of nano-particulate indium doped zinc oxide thin films

Indium doped ZnO thin films were deposited on glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique with variation of indium concentration within a range of 0–5 at% and annealed at 500 °C for 2 h in presence of air. Preferentially oriented ZnO films along (002) plane has been obtained at 1 at% indium doping concentration. The particle size is found to be decreased with increase in dopant concentration as a result of lowering of cohesion in ZnO. The 5 at% indium doped ZnO film has a better compact morphology due to better grain boundary interactions for which it shows highest hall mobility in comparison to the all concentration of indium doped samples. The marginal band gap shift with In doping is attributed to Burstein-Moss shift. Highest thermal activation energy of 0.78 eV has been observed in case of 3 at% indium doping. The origin of the observed visible emission peaks at 450 nm, 468 nm, 480 nm, 490 nm and 670 nm are ascribed to various defects present within the bandgap.

Indium Dopant Concentration Effects on Zinc Oxide Nanowires.

We report in detail the effects of varying the concentration of indium as a dopant in ZnO on the structural, vibrational, and optical properties of ZnO nanowires. A highly versatile route to dope zinc oxide nanowires by using vapor-liquid-solid growth is employed. It is observed that the ratio of indium in ZnO reactant has a large impact on properties of indium-doped ZnO nanowires. Lower indium concentration reveals better transparency while higher concentrations of indium shows segregation of indium-rich domains within the doped nanocrystals. Photoluminescence measurements demonstrated band gap tuning and a smaller UV to deep emission ratio for doped nanowires. Phonon vibrational modes along with origin of observed anomalous vibrational modes induced due to indium incorporation in ZnO are discussed. An average transmittance of more than 90% is observed for a wide range of spectra in both visible and near-IR regions as compared with indium tin oxide. The lowest resistivity of 1.2 × 10-3 Ω·cm was achieved for ZnO films doped with 7% indium oxide. These dramatically superior optical and electrical properties make it a superior candidate for various technological applications.

Elucidation of structural, morphological, optical and photoluminescence properties of single and (In, Ga) co-doped ZnO nanocrystalline thin films

Single and co-doped ZnO thin films are currently under intense investigation and development for optoelectronic applications. Here in this study, pristine, indium-doped (IZO), gallium-doped (GZO) and co-doped (IGZO) ZnO thin films were deposited on a glass substrate using radio frequency magnetron sputtering. A comparative study of all the films was carried out on the basis of their various properties. The effect of single and co-doping on the structural (X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies and Raman studies), morphological (field emission scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy studies) and optical properties (ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) and photoluminescence (PL)) of the deposited films was investigated. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterization was employed to analyse the surface chemical composition and bonding of the deposited film. From the XRD patterns, it was found that the films were highly crystalline in nature and preferentially oriented along the (002) direction with a hexagonal wurtzite structure, consistent with Raman analysis. IGZO films displayed a dramatic improvement in the surface morphology as compared with the single dopant films due to the compensation effect of gallium and indium doping which reduced the lattice strain. The XPS analysis confirmed the presence of the oxidized dopants in each film. All thin films have shown excellent optical properties with more than 90% transmission in the visible range of light. The blue-shift of the absorption edge accompanied by the increase of the optical band gap confirmed the Burstein–Moss effect. The UV PL peak originated from the near band edge emission of crystalline ZnO, while the visible PL was associated with the radiative transition related to oxygen interstitial (Oi) defects in the ZnO structure.