Surface Optical Properties Research Articles

Preparation of silver sulphide (Ag2S) thin films by chemical bath deposition for photocatalytic application

Semiconductor silver sulphide (Ag2S) thin films were grown on the glass substrate by chemical bath deposition (CBD). Five films deposited at the room temperature in a bath containing an aqueous solution of silver sulphide. The chemically synthesized Ag2S films are annealed at 573K for one hour for the second sample, and two hours for the third sample. The fourth sample exposed to microwave irradiation for one hour, and two hours for the fifth sample. Surface morphology, photocatalytic, optical and structural properties of all Ag2S samples investigated. The optical parameters such as transmittance, absorbance, absorption coefficient and energy bandgap of the films with thermal annealing and expose microwave irradiation presented. Optical measurement shows high absorbance in the ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) region. The difference in bandgap values of Ag2S samples was located to be in the range of (1.5-2.05) eV. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements reflect the existence of polycrystalline, and the scanning electron microscopy images showed that the morphologies of Ag2S thin films have various microspheres. The summary of the samples in is in the annealing Ag2S thin film which exhibits the best photocatalytic application.

Surface Morphology and Optical Properties of Hafnium Oxide Thin Films Produced by Magnetron Sputtering.

Hafnium oxide films were deposited on sapphire and silicon (100) substrates using the DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique from a pure hafnium target at different discharge power levels. The influence of the cathode power on the chemical composition, morphology, crystallographic structure and optical properties of the films was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were employed to determine the chemical composition and bonding structure. In all cases, the films were found to be amorphous or nanocrystalline with increased crystalline content as the sputtering power was increased, according to XRD and FTIR. In addition, EDX showed that the films were oxygen-rich. The effect of power deposition on the surface topography and morphology of the films was studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The AFM and SEM images revealed the emergence of mound morphologies as the cathode power was increased. These features are related to blistering effects probably due to the presence of stress and its promotion within the film thickness. Finally, the optical properties showed an average transmission of 80% in the visible range, and the refractive index determined by spectral ellipsometry (SE) was found to be in the range of 1.85-1.92, close to the reported bulk value. SE was also used to study the film porosity observed by SEM, which can be related to the oxygen-rich character of the films.

Effect of Commercial Black Ink on the Optical Properties of P(St-MMA-AA) Microsphere Photonic Crystal Coating on Wood Surface

The mixed emulsion of P(St-MMA-AA) colloidal microspheres doped with black substances in three commercial inks (pen ink, wood color essence, propylene pigment) was coated on the wood surface. The dried colloidal microspheres self-assembled on the wood surface to form a three-dimensional photonic crystal coating. The influence of the coating on the optical properties of the wood surface was analyzed, and the influence of the type, concentration and drying temperature of the black substance on the structural color coating was explored. When three kinds of commercial black ink were mixed with colloidal microsphere emulsion to obtain photonic crystals on the wood surface, the transmitted light and the scattered light outside the photonic band gap were absorbed by black ink, which effectively reduced the light scattering inside the crystal and significantly enhanced the depth of the photonic crystal structure color. This study utilizes both pigment color and structural color, providing an environmentally friendly and novel method for colored coating of wood surfaces.

Hybrid Mesoporous TiO2/ZnO Electron Transport Layer for Efficient Perovskite Solar Cell.

In recent years, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have gained major attention as potentially useful photovoltaic technology due to their ever-increasing power-conversion efficiency (PCE). The efficiency of PSCs depends strongly on the type of materials selected as the electron transport layer (ETL). TiO2 is the most widely used electron transport material for the n-i-p structure of PSCs. Nevertheless, ZnO is a promising candidate owing to its high transparency, suitable energy band structure, and high electron mobility. In this investigation, hybrid mesoporous TiO2/ZnO ETL was fabricated for a perovskite solar cell composed of FTO-coated glass/compact TiO2/mesoporous ETL/FAPbI3/2D perovskite/Spiro-OMeTAD/Au. The influence of ZnO nanostructures with different percentage weight contents on the photovoltaic performance was investigated. It was found that the addition of ZnO had no significant effect on the surface topography, structure, and optical properties of the hybrid mesoporous electron-transport layer but strongly affected the electrical properties of PSCs. The best efficiency rate of 18.24% has been obtained for PSCs with 2 wt.% ZnO.

Enhanced structural and optical properties of semipolar (112¯2) AlGaN film with insertion of AlN/AlGaN superlattice

The high-quality semipolar (112¯2) AlGaN films with high Al contents were successfully deposited on (101¯0) m-plane sapphire substrates with the insertion of AlN/AlGaN superlattice (SL) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technology. The dependence of structural and optical properties of the (112¯2) AlGaN film on the deposition parameters for the inserted AlN/AlGaN SL was investigated extensively premised on the characterization results of the optical microscope, atomic force microscopy, relative optical transmittance spectroscopy, high-resolution x-ray diffraction, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. It was discovered that the insertion of the AlN/AlGaN SL grown under an optimized stabilization time of 10 s between the deposition of AlN and AlGaN sublayers could be used to make significant enhancements in surface morphological characteristics, crystal quality, and optical properties of the (112¯2) AlGaN film. The mechanism for the defects reduction in the (112¯2) AlGaN film was revealed to be owing to the increase in bending and annihilating probability of the threading dislocations, basal-plane stacking faults, and other structural defects promoted by introducing sufficiently high desorbed Ga atom-induced vacancy concentration in the optimized thermal treatment process.

S-scheme Bi2O3/CdMoO4 hybrid with highly efficient charge separation for photocatalytic N2 fixation and tetracycline Degradation: Fabrication, catalytic Optimization, physicochemical studies

This study employed a deposition-oxidation method to design and synthesize a novel composite photocatalyst of Bi2O3/CdMoO4. A comprehensive investigation was conducted on the morphology, specific surface area, structure, optical properties, and photoelectric chemical properties of the Bi2O3/CdMoO4 composite. The results indicate the dispersion of Bi2O3 nanoparticles on the surface of CdMoO4 polymers, which increases the light absorption and facilitates the photocatalytic reaction. Furthermore, a tight contact between CdMoO4 and Bi2O3 was observed, resulting in the formation of a heterojunction structure at their contact region due to their suitable band positions. Density functional theory calculations and MS analysis revealed the higher work function of CdMoO4 compared to Bi2O3, causing electron drift from Bi2O3 to CdMoO4 and the subsequent formation of a built-in electric field. The presence of this electric field promotes the separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs through an S-scheme mechanism, thereby enhancing the performance of the Bi2O3/CdMoO4 composite in photocatalytic N2 fixation (PNF) reactions. Under simulated sunlight irradiation, the optimal Bi2O3/CdMoO4 catalyst displayed a PNF rate of 323 μmol/L g-1h−1, which was 3.6 and 11.8 times higher than that of pure CdMoO4 and Bi2O3, respectively. The Bi2O3/CdMoO4 composite also exhibited good performance in tetracycline degradation. Electron spin-resonance experiments indicate that hole and superoxide radicals serve as the primary reactive species. These findings offer practical knowledge about the design and synthesis of new S-scheme photocatalysts for PNF and antibiotics removal.

Scattering Amplitude of Surface Plasmon Polariton Excited by a Finite Grating.

Unusual optical properties of laser-ablated metal surfaces arise from the excitation of local plasmon resonances in nano- and microstructures produced by laser-processing and from the mutual interaction of those structures through surface plasmon polariton (SPP) waves. This interaction provides a synergistic effect, which can make the optical properties of the composite nanostructure drastically different from the properties of its elements. At the same time, the prediction and analysis of these properties are hampered by the complexity of the analytical solution to the problem of SPP excitation by surface objects of arbitrary configuration. Such a problem can be reduced to a simpler one if one considers the geometry of a structured surface as a superposition of harmonic Fourier components. Therefore, the analytical solution to the problem of surface plasmon polariton excitation through the scattering of light by a sinusoidally perturbed plasmonic metal/vacuum boundary becomes very important. In this work, we show that this problem can be solved using a well-known method for calculating guided-mode amplitudes in the presence of current sources, which is used widely in the waveguide theory. The calculations are carried out for the simplest 2D cases of (1) a sinusoidal current of finite length and (2) a finite-length sinusoidal corrugation on a plasmonic metal surface illuminated by a normally incident plane wave. The analytical solution is compared with the results of numerical simulations. It is shown that, in the first case, the analytical and numerical solutions agree almost perfectly. In the second case, the analytical solution correctly predicts the optimum height of the corrugation xopt, providing the maximum SPP excitation efficiency. At the same time, the analytical and numerical values of the SPP amplitude agree very well when the corrugation height x turns out to be x≪xopt or x≫xopt (at least up to 3xopt); at x=xopt, the mismatch of those does not exceed 25%. The limitations of the analytical model leading to such a mismatch are discussed. We believe that the presented approach is useful for modeling various phenomena associated with SPP excitation.

Photogenerated cathodic protection properties of Fe2O3 nanotubes prepared by anodic oxidation

Photogenerated cathodic protection as a new type of corrosion protection method has evoked great attention. The n-type semiconductor is normally selected as the photogenerated cathodic protection composite. α-Fe2O3 is a typical n-type semiconductor, which is easy to obtain and environmental-friendly. However, it is normally prepared on the FTO substrate and could hardly protect carbon steel. In this study, α-Fe2O3 nanotubes are fabricated on carbon steel by anodic oxidation method at different oxidation potentials. The corresponding surface morphologies, compositions, and optical absorption properties are characterized with SEM, Raman spectroscopy, and UV-Visible spectrometer. The photoelectrochemical tests show that the prepared α-Fe2O3 can supply cathodic protection to carbon steel. The maximum photogenerated potential drop is obtained for the α-Fe2O3 sample prepared under 50 V at 30 ℃ for 450 s anodic oxidation. It is revealed that the fine structure is benefit to capture light and enhances the photogenerated cathodic protection performance to carbon steel.

Optical properties and electron characteristics of noble-metal-dielectric oxide nanostructures with covered graphene layer

A comparative study of surface plasmon resonances (SPR) and optical properties of metal/dielectric/graphene multilayer films based on high conductive Ag and Cu metals is presented. For measurements of the generation of surface plasmon polaritons under the resonant condition, we involved the total internal reflection ellipsometry and direct spectroscopic ellipsometry for determining optical properties. SPR was studied in graphene/HfO2/Ag(Cu)/Cr/substrate nano-hetero-structures which contain an additional graphene surface layer for enhancement of their sensing performance. The plasmonic performance of each hybrid nano-hetero-structure is evaluated based on quality factors and propagation length of surface plasmon polaritons. The SPR in the graphene/HfO2/Ag(Cu)/Cr/substrate hybrid nano-hetero-structures demonstrate a strong correlation with the measured macroscopic optical characteristics such as the effective real dielectric function ε1(λ) and optical conductivity σ(λ) and extracted from them effective microscopic parameters: the plasma and relaxation frequencies of free electrons ωP and γ. Our results on graphene/HfO2/Ag(Cu)/Cr/substrate hybrid nano-hetero-structures indicate that the real part of the effective dielectric function ε1(λ) and optical conductivity σ(λ) generally follows effective medium approach and the stronger SPR occurs at higher values of ε1(λSPR), and the ratio of ωP2/γ and lower ones of σ (λSPR). Going forward, it appears that graphene/HfO2/Ag(Cu)/Cr/substrate hybrid nano-hetero-structure designs are more suitable for surface plasmon biomedical sensor applications because they could provide both tunability and low optical loss due to specific electronic properties of graphene.

Study on surface modification and optical properties of Nd-doped phosphate glass

Using laser neodymium glass (N31) as the substrate, through ion exchange and hydrogen reduction process, a high-efficiency light absorption layer was formed from the substrate around the glass. It has been discovered that increasing the ion exchange temperature and time enhanced the exchange depth of laser glass, but excessive temperature and prolonged time will lead to corrosion of laser glass. The experiment shows that the best exchange temperature is 460°C and the best exchange time is 720min. When the hydrogen pressure was 0.8MP, the reduction temperature was 480°C and the reduction time was 12000 min, the absorption rate of the sample at 1053nm was 95.8%.

Dual role of Au-NPs for Schottky effect and SPR electron injection over CdS surfaces for photocatalytic applications

In this work, CdS and Au-loaded CdS photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by the hydrothermal method. The gold nanoparticles were in-situ developed over the surfaces of CdS support via chemical reduction method. To find the surface morphology and optical properties, the as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized using XRD analysis, Raman spectroscopy, UV–Vis-DRS, PL, AFM, SEM and EDX techniques. To evaluate the charge separation efficiency of materials photochemical experiment (i.e. Photocurrent response and EIS) were conducted. The surface area and oxidation state were studies via XPS, BET techniques. UV–Vis spectrophotometer was used to examine the photocatalytic degradation activities. Results of this work depict that existence of Au nanoparticles over the surface of CdS boosts the photocatalytic performance. The higher activities were accredited due to hot electron injection of Au-NPs (SPR effect) to the conduction band. Higher charge separation is inevitable due to intimate effect of Schottky junctions and new Fermi levels generation during the photoreactions. It has been found that radical like •O2− and h+ are the main active species for the degradation reactions. To evaluate the ideal conditions, various factors have been investigated for the methyl orange (MO) degradation. On the basis of encouraging results, we can recommend this work for other potential applications.

Cross-Scale Light Absorption Properties of Surface Bionic Microstructures for Spacecraft Stealth

To address the problem that the black coating for spacecraft optical stealth easily falls off, this study constructs a light-absorbing spacecraft surface based on a micro/nanostructure through imitating a natural light-trapping structure. In this paper, we first analyze the optical properties of a basic stealth structure with the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method and establish a mapping relationship between the light absorption rate of the basic stealth structure and its multiscale factors. Then, imitating the microstructural characteristics of the blackened parts of butterfly wings, we design a multilayered and multiscale complex stealth structure to achieve the optical stealth characteristics of low reflection and high absorption of sunlight on the surface of the spacecraft. Simulation analysis shows that the bionic microstructure can be used to change the optical properties of the metal surface to a certain wavelength band; the complex stealth structure designed based on the butterfly wing can absorb 80.18% of visible light and reduce the overall brightness of the high-orbiting spacecraft by four orders of magnitude.

Impact of Growth Temperature of Lead-Oxide Nanostructures on the Attenuation of Gamma Radiation.

Chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique is utilized to grow lead-oxide (PbO) nanostructures (NSs) over PbO seed fabricated by physical vapor deposition (PVD) method on glass substrates. The effect of growth temperatures 50 and 70 °C on the surface topography, optical properties, and crystal structure of lead-oxide NSs has been studied. The investigated results suggested that the growth temperature has a huge and very considerable influence on the PbO NS, and the fabricated PbO NS has been indexed as the Pb3O4 polycrystalline tetragonal phase. The crystal size for PbO thin films grown at 50 °C was 85.688 nm and increased to 96.61 nm once the growth temperature reached 70 °C. The fabricated PbO nanofilms show a high rate of transmittance, which are ∼70 and 75% in the visible spectrum for the films deposited at 50 and 70 °C, respectively. The obtained Eg was in the range of 2.099-2.288 eV. Also, the linear attenuation coefficient values of gamma-rays for shielding the Cs-137 radioactive source increased at 50 °C. The transmission factor, mean free path, and half-value layer are reduced at a higher attenuation coefficient of PbO grown at 50 °C. This study evaluates the relationship between synthesized lead-oxide NSs and the radiation energy attenuation of gamma-rays. This study provided a suitable, novel, and flexible protective shield of clothes or an apron made of lead or lead oxide to protect against ionizing radiation that meets safety rules and protects medical workers from ionizing radiation.

Reversibly growing crosslinked polymers with programmable sizes and properties

Growth constitutes a powerful method to post-modulate materials’ structures and functions without compromising their mechanical performance for sustainable use, but the process is irreversible. To address this issue, we here report a growing-degrowing strategy that enables thermosetting materials to either absorb or release components for continuously changing their sizes, shapes, compositions, and a set of properties simultaneously. The strategy is based on the monomer-polymer equilibrium of networks in which supplying or removing small polymerizable components would drive the networks toward expansion or contraction. Using acid-catalyzed equilibration of siloxane as an example, we demonstrate that the size and mechanical properties of the resulting silicone materials can be significantly or finely tuned in both directions of growth and decomposition. The equilibration can be turned off to yield stable products or reactivated again. During the degrowing-growing circle, material structures are selectively varied either uniformly or heterogeneously, by the availability of fillers. Our strategy endows the materials with many appealing capabilities including environment adaptivity, self-healing, and switchability of surface morphologies, shapes, and optical properties. Since monomer-polymer equilibration exists in many polymers, we envision the expansion of the presented strategy to various systems for many applications.

Nanomechanical/Micromechanical Approach to the Problems of Dendrochronology and Dendroclimatology

The most widespread approach in dendrochronology (wood dating) and dendroclimatology (climate reconstruction) is based on measurement of the width of annual growth rings by analyzing optical images of wood cross sections. This approach is quite efficient and easy to implement but it has inherent drawbacks. Raw data for these techniques originate from the optical properties of the wood surface, which are not directly related to other properties of wood, mechanical properties in particular. This paper describes a new quantitative approach applicable to dendrochronology and dendroclimatology based upon measurement of the micromechanical properties of wood by employing nanoindendation and digital sclerometry. It yields not only the width of annual growth rings and early and late wood layers with an accuracy not inferior to optical methods, but also rich data on the mechanical properties of the wood with a high spatial resolution that could be brought to subcellular scale if necessary. This data can be used for the dendrochronological analysis of archeological finds and the evaluation of climatic parameters during tree growth with a time resolution of up to a month or even better, which is unlike other common methods with a time resolution of one year. Moreover, the detailed continuous profiling of local mechanical properties can form a basis for improving our understanding of the nature and mechanisms of the formation of macromechanical properties important for applications and can clarify the climate factors that have the greatest impact on such properties.

Application of ZnO/WO3 Composite Nanofiber Photocatalysts in Textile Wastewater Treatment

Semiconductor photocatalysis technology is an environmentally friendly and efficient emerging technology. This method can use sunlight as a driving force to quickly decompose organic pollutants in water bodies. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and tungsten oxide (WO3) photocatalysts can absorb sunlight and participate in photocatalytic degradation reactions due to their relatively narrow band gap. Highly photosensitive WO3 nanofibers and ZnO/WO3 composite nanofibers were fabricated via the electrospinning method. When 100 mg/L of rhodamine B (Rh B) solution was used as the degradation substrate, the degradation efficiencies of WO3 and ZnO/WO3 for Rh B dye were 70% and 90%, respectively, after a photocatalytic reaction of 120 min. The surface morphology, crystal structure, and optical properties of ZnO/WO3 composite nanofibers and WO3 nanofibers were characterized by SEM, XRD, XPS, and UV-vis absorption spectra, and the experimental results were analyzed and explained using different mechanisms. The results show that ZnO/WO3 composite nanofibers have better UV-visible light absorption performance, and the sample has a higher UV-visible light utilization rate. This was mainly due to the fact that a P-N heterojunction was formed in the semiconductor composite, and the electron–hole pair could realize rapid separation under the drive of a built-in electric field force, which promoted the migration of carrier. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO/WO3 catalyst was significantly higher than that of the WO3 catalyst, which promoted rapid improvement of the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the Rh B dye.

Microwave synthesis of carbon dots in ten choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents: Effect of solvent molecular structure on carbon dots fluorescence and sensing properties

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have showed great interest in carbon dots synthesis. Surface and optical characteristics of carbon dots (CDs) can be influenced by solvent during the synthesis. In this study, microwave method was used for CDs synthesis in ten choline chloride based DESs. Glucose was used as a cheap carbon source. Surface functional groups, optical and fluorescence properties of ten CDs were compared. Quantum yield (QY) of the prepared CDs in choline chloride/urea, choline chloride/glycerol and choline chloride/thiourea DESs were 41.3, 38.7 and 35.5%, respectively. Doping of nitrogen and sulfur atoms in the CDsDES1, CDsDES2 and CDsDES4 enhanced the photoluminescence performance. TEM, FT-IR, EDXS and fluorescence spectroscopy were used for CDs characterization. Results showed that molecular structure of hydrogen bond donor (HBD) had important influence on the CDs properties and doping. The hydrogen bond strength and hydrogen donor ability of DES reduce by the increase of carbon chain length of HBD. DESs with short carbon chain and high content of –NH2 and –OH produce CDs with higher QYs. Some of these CDs were also used as fluorescent nano-probes.

Effect of post annealing on DC magnetron sputtered tungsten oxide (WO3) thin films for smartwindow applications

Tungsten oxide (WO3) thin films were deposited on Fluorine Doped Tin Oxide (FTO) and Corning Glass (CG) glass substrate by DC magnetron sputtering. The annealing temperature was varied to study its effect on surface morphology, structural, electrochromic (EC), and optical properties and these are investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, Cyclic voltammetry, and ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy. From SEM analysis WO3 thin films annealed at 27 °C, 100 °C, 200 °C, and 300 °C were shown to crack free after that cracked film was observed for 400 °C. From the XRD investigation that the WO3 thin films annealed at 27 °C, 100 °C, 200 °C, and 300 °C were amorphous and crystallized at 400 °C. The optical band gap (Eg) of WO3 films was decreased from 2.98 eV to 2.30 eV with an increase in annealed temperature. The coloration efficiency (CE) was observed at 51.26 cm2/C at 300 °C and 35.06 cm2/C at 400 °C and the lowest diffusion coefficient was observed at 5.86 × 10−10 cm2/s at 400 °C. On coloring efficiency, which can be very important in electrochromic (EC) applications, post-annealing has been seen to have a strong influence.

Influence of non-magnetic ions doping on structural, morphological, optical, and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline zinc oxide powders

In this research study, nanocrystalline non-magnetic ion-doped zinc oxide powders are synthesized through sol-gel auto combustion with a variety of different ions (Mg, Al, and Ca) at a range of concentrations (0, 5%, 10%, 20% mol). X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), filed-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) were then used to investigate the calcined products, whereupon the structures, chemical bonds, surface texture, chemical composition, morphologies, particle size, surface elemental composition, electronic state, optical and fluorescence properties including magnetism were reported for each of the samples. From XRD it could be determined that the introduction of minuscule quantities of magnesium and calcium ions to the zinc oxide powder produced solutions of hexagonal solid MgZnO and CaZnO, while composites of Mg/ZnO, CaO/ZnO, Al2O3/ZnO could also be observed, without impurity phases. Textural properties of these modified samples observed from SEM, FE-SEM, and TEM were superior to that of the pure ZnO. XPS studies confirmed the substitution of Zn2+ by Mg2+ and Ca2+ for the samples of low doping concentration. UV-DRS analysis showed that samples which had been optimally modified exhibited improved levels of absorption when compared to visible spectral observations of the pure sample. In comparison to the pure sample, the modified samples also showed higher bandgap energy (Eg). In the pure sample, violet and blue emission bands were seen in the PL spectra ranging from 350 to 430 nm, but these emissions showed significant changes in intensity as the concentration of non-magnetic ions was increased. Furthermore, VSM results revealed that diamagnetism of zinc oxide can be adjusted through the introduction of non-magnetic ions to paramagnetism and ferromagnetism.

Comparative study of structural, optical and electrical properties variation of pure, (Ag, Mg) doped and co-doped ZnO nanostructured thin films

Abstract Nanostructured thin films are one of the most valuable types of industrial semiconductors for a variety of optoelectronics and optical device applications, having recently been used as a transparent conductive oxide in solar cells. In this work, nanostructured thin films of pure ZnO, Ag doped ZnO, Mg doped ZnO and Ag–Mg co-doped ZnO were successfully synthesized on silicon and glass substrates, using rapid thermal evaporation. The impact of the doping elements on the surface morphology, structural, electrical, and optical properties of the deposited films were investigated. It was found that all films have polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure using X-ray diffraction. Images obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed compact and smooth surfaces, with uniform coverage of all substrate regions. SEM images confirm the nanostructured nature of the surfaces with particle size varying as a function of doping. Raman spectroscopy showed A1(LO), E2(high) and LVM modes for all samples. The developed films’ optical transmission ranged from 74 % to 87 %, with an optical bandgap ranging from 3.09 for Mg:ZnO films to 3.8 eV for Ag:ZnO samples. Depending on the doping nature modification, these alterations were associated to structural and morphological changes in the films. All films were electrically conductive, while Ag:ZnO films exhibited the lowest resistivity value reaching 0.56 Ω cm.