Sample records for ga-codoped zno films

  1. Melioration of Optical and Electrical Performance of Ga-N Codoped ZnO Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Narayanan, Nripasree; Deepak, N. K.

    2018-06-01

    Transparent and conducting p-type zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films doped with gallium (Ga) and nitrogen (N) simultaneously were deposited on glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique. Phase composition analysis by X-ray diffraction confirmed the polycrystallinity of the films with pure ZnO phase. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis showed excellent incorporation of N in the ZnO matrix by means of codoping. The optical transmittance of N monodoped film was poor but got improved with Ga-N codoping and also resulted in the enhancement of optical energy gap. Hole concentration increased with codoping and consequently, lower resistivity and high stability were obtained.

  2. Sol-gel derived Al-Ga co-doped transparent conducting oxide ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Serrao, Felcy Jyothi, E-mail: jyothiserrao@gmail.com; Department of Physics, Karnataka Government Research centre SCEM, Mangalore, 575007; Sandeep, K. M.

    2016-05-23

    Transparent conducting ZnO doped with Al, Ga and co-doped Al and Ga (1:1) (AGZO) thin films were grown on glass substrates by cost effective sol-gel spin coating method. The XRD results showed that all the films are polycrystalline in nature and highly textured along the (002) plane. Enhanced grain size was observed in the case of AGZO thin films. The transmittance of all the films was more than 83% in the visible region of light. The electrical properties such as carrier concentration and mobility values are increased in case of AGZO compared to that of Al and Ga doped ZnOmore » thin films. The minimum resistivity of 2.54 × 10{sup −3} Ω cm was observed in AGZO thin film. The co-doped AGZO thin films exhibited minimum resistivity and high optical transmittance, indicate that co-doped ZnO thin films could be used in transparent electronics mainly in display applications.« less

  3. Synergistic effect of indium and gallium co-doping on the properties of RF sputtered ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shaheera, M.; Girija, K. G.; Kaur, Manmeet; Geetha, V.; Debnath, A. K.; Karri, Malvika; Thota, Manoj Kumar; Vatsa, R. K.; Muthe, K. P.; Gadkari, S. C.

    2018-04-01

    ZnO thin films were synthesized using RF magnetron sputtering, with simultaneous incorporation of Indium (In) and Gallium (Ga). The structural, optical, chemical composition and surface morphology of the pure and co-doped (IGZO) thin films were characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), UV-visible spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and Raman spectroscopy. XRD revealed that these films were oriented along c-axis with hexagonal wurtzite structure. The (002) diffraction peak in the co-doped sample was observed at 33.76° with a slight shift towards lower 2θ values as compared to pure ZnO. The surface morphology of the two thin films was observed to differ. For pure ZnO films, round grains were observed and for IGZO thin films round as well as rod type grains were observed. All thin films synthesized show excellent optical properties with more than 90% transmission in the visible region and band gap of the films is observed to decrease with co-doping. The co doping of In and Ga is therefore expected to provide a broad range optical and physical properties of ZnO thin films for a variety of optoelectronic applications.

  4. Electrical and optical properties of p-type codoped ZnO thin films prepared by spin coating technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pathak, Trilok Kumar; Kumar, Vinod; Swart, H. C.; Purohit, L. P.

    2016-03-01

    Undoped, doped and codoped ZnO thin films were synthesized on glass substrates using a spin coating technique. Zinc acetate dihydrate, ammonium acetate and aluminum nitrate were used as precursor for zinc, nitrogen and aluminum, respectively. X-ray diffraction shows that the thin films have a hexagonal wurtzite structure for the undoped, doped and co-doped ZnO. The transmittance of the films was above 80% and the band gap of the film varied from 3.20 eV to 3.24 eV for undoped and doped ZnO. An energy band diagram to describe the photoluminescence from the thin films was also constructed. This diagram includes the various defect levels and possible quasi-Fermi levels. A minimum resistivity of 0.0834 Ω-cm was obtained for the N and Al codoped ZnO thin films with p-type carrier conductivity. These ZnO films can be used as a window layer in solar cells and in UV lasers.

  5. Bipolar charge storage characteristics in copper and cobalt co-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film.

    PubMed

    Kumar, Amit; Herng, Tun Seng; Zeng, Kaiyang; Ding, Jun

    2012-10-24

    The bipolar charge phenomenon in Cu and Co co-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) film samples has been studied using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques. Those ZnO samples are made using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. It is found that the addition of Cu and Co dopants suppresses the electron density in ZnO and causes a significant change in the work function (Fermi level) value of the ZnO film; this results in the ohmic nature of the contact between the electrode (probe tip) and codoped sample, whereas this contact exhibits a Schottky nature in the undoped and single-element-doped samples. These results are verified by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) measurements. It is also found that the co-doping (Cu and Co) can stabilize the bipolar charge, whereas Cu doping only stabilizes the positive charge in ZnO thin films.

  6. Study on the effects of Ga-2N high co-doping and preferred orientation on the stability, bandgap and absorption spectrum of ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hou, Qing-Yu; Li, Wen-Cai; Qu, Ling-Feng; Zhao, Chun-Wang

    2017-06-01

    Currently, the stability and visible light properties of Ga-2N co-doped ZnO systems have been studied extensively by experimental analysis and theoretical calculations. However, previous theoretical calculations arbitrarily assigned Ga- and 2N-doped sites in ZnO. In addition, the most stable and possible doping orientations of doped systems have not been fully and systematically considered. Therefore, in this paper, the electron structure and absorption spectra of the unit cells of doped and pure systems were calculated by first-principles plane-wave ultrasoft pseudopotential with the GGA+U method. Calculations were performed for pure ZnO, Ga-2N supercells heavily co-doped with Zn1-xGaxO1-yNy (x = 0.03125 - 0.0625, y = 0.0625 - 0.125) under different co-doping orientations and conditions, and the Zn16GaN2O14 interstitial model. The results indicated that under different orientations and constant Ga-2N co-doping concentrations, the systems co-doped with Ga-N atoms vertically oriented to the c-axis and with another N atom located in the nearest-neighboring site exhibited higher stability over the others, thus lowering formation energy and facilitating doping. Moreover, Ga-interstitial- and 2N-co-doped ZnO systems easily formed chemical compounds. Increasing co-doping concentration while the co-doping method remained constant decreased doped system volume and lowered formation energies. Meantime, co-doped systems were more stable and doping was facilitated. The bandgap was also narrower and red shifting of the absorption spectrum was more significant. These results agreed with previously reported experimental results. In addition, the absorption spectra of Ga-interstitial- and 2N-co-doped ZnO both blue shifted in the UV region compared with that of the pure ZnO system.

  7. Enhancing Optical and Electrical Properties of La- and Al-Codoped ZnO Thin Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Method -La Codoping Effect.

    PubMed

    He-Yan, Hai

    2017-07-10

    Backgroud: The transparent conductive ZnO film is widely used in solar cell. Enhancing the transmittance and electrical conductivity of the films is attracting many attentions to improve cell efficiency. This work focuses on the fabrication and potential application of the various cation-doped ZnO materials in recent patents and literature and then presents the La codoping effects of Al-doped ZnO films. Films were deposited by a sol-gel route and characterized by various techniques including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, UV-vis and luminescent spectroscopies, and electrical conduction analysis. The UV-vis. transmittance and band gap increased and then decreased, whereas the resistivity decreased and then slightly increased with the increase in La/Al ratio. The La/Al ratio of 0.0105 led to a maximal transmittance, a widest band gap, and a minimal resistivity. The films also illustrated a near band gap emission and some intrinsic defect-related emissions with varied intensity with La/Al ratio. This work reveal that the electrical and optical properties of the ZnO:Al films can be well enhanced by La codoping. This is significant to the applications of the ZnO:Al materials. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  8. Physical study on Cobalt-Indium Co-doped ZnO nanofilms as hydrophobic surfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mimouni, R.; Mahdhi, N.; Boubaker, K.; Madouri, A.; Amlouk, M.

    2016-03-01

    The present work reports some physical investigations on (Co,In) codoped zinc oxide nanofilms deposited on glass substrates at 460 °C by the spray pyrolysis technique. The effect of Co and In concentration on the structural, morphological, optical and surface wettability properties have been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, optical measurement, photoluminescence spectroscopy as well as the measurement of hydrophobicity in terms of water contact angle. It is found that all films crystallized in würtzite ZnO phase, with a preferentially orientation towards (002) direction parallel to c-axis. The Raman spectra of the samples exhibit the presence of E2high characteristic mode of würtzite structure with high crystallinity as well as two dominant bands 1LO and 2LO. Also, no additional modes introduced by codopoing have been found. SEM micrographs show the uniform deposition of fine grains on surface films. Thicknesses of films are less than 100 nm. In addition, optical investigations indicate that the band gap narrowing of (Co,In) codoped ZnO thin films is due to the increase in the band tail width. Indeed, PL study indicates that (Co,In) codoped ZnO nanofilms exhibit a large decrease of the UV luminescence, which is assigned to the trapping of photo-generated electrons by both In3+ and Co2+ ions as well as an improvement of charge separation in the ZnO thin films. Finally, the (Co,In) codoping influences the surface wettability property and transform the ZnO character from hydrophilic (θ < 90°) for pure ZnO nanofilm to hydrophobic (θ > 90°) for (Co,In) codoped ZnO ones.

  9. Different magnetic origins of (Mn, Fe)-codoped ZnO powders and thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Fan, Jiuping; Jiang, Fengxian; Quan, Zhiyong

    2012-11-15

    Graphical abstract: The effects of the sample forms, fabricated methods, and process conditions on the structural and magnetic properties of (Mn, Fe)-codoped ZnO powders and films were systematically studied. The origins of ferromagnetism in the vacuum-annealed powder and PLD-deposited film are different. The former originates from the impurities of magnetic clusters, whereas the latter comes from the almost homogenous phase. Highlights: ► The magnetic natures of Zn{sub 0.98}Mn{sub 0.01}Fe{sub 0.01}O powders and thin films come from different origins. ► The ferromagnetism of the powder is mainly from the contribution of magnetic clusters. ► Whereas the ferromagnetic behavior of the filmmore » comes from the almost homogenous phase. -- Abstract: The structural and magnetic properties of (Mn, Fe)-codoped ZnO powders as well as thin films were investigated. The X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements indicated that the higher sintering temperature facilitates more Mn and Fe incorporation into ZnO. Magnetic measurements indicated that the powder sintered in air at 800 °C showed paramagnetic, but it exhibited obvious room temperature ferromagnetism after vacuum annealing at 600 °C. The results revealed that magnetic clusters were the major contributors to the observed ferromagnetism in vacuum-annealed Zn{sub 0.98}Mn{sub 0.01}Fe{sub 0.01}O powder. Interestingly, the room temperature ferromagnetism was also observed in the Zn{sub 0.98}Mn{sub 0.01}Fe{sub 0.01}O film deposited via pulsed laser deposition from the air-sintered paramagnetic target, but the secondary phases in the film were not detected from X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and zero-field cooling and field cooling. Apparently, the magnetic natures of powders and films come from different origins.« less

  10. Codoping characteristics of Zn with Mg in GaN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, K. S.; Han, M. S.; Yang, G. M.; Youn, C. J.; Lee, H. J.; Cho, H. K.; Lee, J. Y.

    2000-08-01

    The doping characteristics of Mg-Zn codoped GaN films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition are investigated. By means of the concept of Mg-Zn codoping technique, we have grown p-GaN showing a low electrical resistivity (0.72 Ω cm) and a high hole concentration (8.5×1017cm-3) without structural degradation of the film. It is thought that the codoping of Zn atoms with Mg raises the Mg activation ratio by reducing the hydrogen solubility in p-GaN. In addition, the measured specific contact resistance of Mg-Zn codoped GaN film is 5.0×10-4 Ω cm2, which is one order of magnitude lower than that of Mg doped only GaN film (1.9×10-3 Ω cm2).

  11. Ferromagnetism induced by oxygen-vacancy complex in (Mn, in) codoped ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Kongping; Gu, Shulin; Tang, Kun; Zhu, Shunming; Zhou, Mengran; Huang, Yourui; Xu, Mingxiang; Zhang, Rong; Zheng, Youdou

    2012-07-01

    Mn doped Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique. Structural characterizations by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) indicate the crystal quality of ZnO films. PL and Raman show a large fraction of oxygen vacancies (VO2+) are generated by vacuum annealed the film. The enhancement of ferromagnetism in post-annealed (Mn, In) codoped ZnO could result from VO2+ incorporation. The effect of VO2+ on the magnetic properties of (Mn, In) codoped ZnO has been studied by first-principles calculations. It is found that only In donor cannot induce ferromagnetism (FM) in Mn-doped ZnO. Besides, the presence of VO2+ makes the Mn empty 3d-t2g minority state broadened, and a t2g-VO2+ hybrid level at the conduction band minimum forms. The presence of VO2+ can lead to strong ferromagnetic coupling with the nearest neighboring Mn cation by BMP model based on defects reveal that the ferromagnetic exchange is mediated by the donor impurity state, which mainly consists of Mn 3d electrons trapped in oxygen vacancies.

  12. Resistive switching: An investigation of the bipolar–unipolar transition in Co-doped ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Santos, Daniel A.A., E-mail: danielandrade.ufs@gmail.com; Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260; Zeng, Hao

    2015-06-15

    Highlights: • A purely bipolar behavior on a Co-doped ZnO thin film has been demonstrated. • We have shown what can happen if a unipolar test is performed in a purely bipolar device. • An explanation for how a sample can show a purely bipolar switching behavior was suggested. • An important open issue about resistive switching effect was put in debate. - Abstract: In order to investigate the resistive switching effect we built devices in a planar structure in which two Al contacts were deposited on the top of the film and separated by a small gap using amore » shadow mask. Therefore, two samples of 10% Co-doped ZnO thin films were sputtered on glass substrate. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) revealed a highly c-axis oriented crystalline structure, without secondary phase. The high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM) showed a flat surface with good coverage and thickness about 300 nm. A Keithley 2425 semiconductor characterization system was used to perform the resistive switching tests in the bipolar and unipolar modes. Considering only the effect of compliance current (CC), the devices showed a purely bipolar behavior since an increase in CC did not induce a transition to unipolar behavior.« less

  13. Ferromagnetic mechanism of (Co, Cu)-codoped ZnO films with different Co concentrations investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Huan; Du, Xiaosong; Xu, Ming

    2016-05-01

    Cobalt/copper-codoped ZnO nanoparticles, synthesized with different Co concentrations by a sol-gel method using ethanol as solvent, were studied via XPS. Hexagonal wurtzite structure was found in all samples, with no evidence of any secondary phase. The average crystallite size of the samples was around 20-30 nm, altered significantly with increasing Co concentration. Copper ions and Cobalt ions are indeed substituted into the ZnO lattice at the Zn2+ site, as shown by XRD and XPS. Further studies showed dramatic changes of Cu valence from +2 to +1 as the Co concentration level exceeds 1%, accompanied by a blue-shift of the optical bandgap from 3.01 to 3.13 eV. Ferromagnetism of the Co-doped Zn0.95Cu0.05O thin films was observed and found to be tunable - a phenomenon associated with the valence state of the Cu ions and the existence of some defects like oxygen vacancies in the films.

  14. Effect of Co doping concentration on structural properties and optical parameters of Co-doped ZnO thin films by sol-gel dip-coating method.

    PubMed

    Nam, Giwoong; Yoon, Hyunsik; Kim, Byunggu; Lee, Dong-Yul; Kim, Jong Su; Leem, Jae-Young

    2014-11-01

    The structural and optical properties of Co-doped ZnO thin films prepared by a sol-gel dip-coating method were investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the thin films were grown with a c-axis preferred orientation. The position of the (002) peak was almost the same in all samples, irrespective of the Co concentration. It is thus clear that Co doping had little effect on the position of the (002) peak. To confirm that Co2+ was substituted for Zn2+ in the wurtzite structure, optical measurements were conducted at room temperature by a UV-visible spectrometer. Three absorption peaks are apparent in the Co-doped ZnO thin films that do not appear for the undoped ZnO thin film. As the Co concentration was increased, absorption related to characteristic Co2+ transitions increased because three absorption band intensities and the area underneath the absorption wells between 500 and 700 nm increased with increasing Co concentration. The optical band gap and static dielectric constant decreased and the Urbach energy and extinction coefficient increased with increasing Co concentration.

  15. Photoconductive ZnO Films Printed on Flexible Substrates by Inkjet and Aerosol Jet Techniques

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winarski, D. J.; Kreit, E.; Heckman, E. M.; Flesburg, E.; Haseman, M.; Aga, R. S.; Selim, F. A.

    2018-02-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have remarkable versatility in sensor applications. Here, we report simple ink synthesis and printing methods to deposit ZnO photodetectors on a variety of flexible and transparent substrates, including polyimide (Kapton), polyethylene terephthalate, cyclic olefin copolymer (TOPAS), and quartz. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the dependence of the film orientation on the substrate type and sintering method, and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) absorption measurements revealed a band edge near 380 nm. van der Pauw technique was used to measure the resistivity of undoped ZnO and indium/gallium-codoped ZnO (IGZO) films. IGZO films showed lower resistivity and larger average grain size compared with undoped ZnO films due to addition of In3+ and Ga3+, which act as donors. A 365-nm light-emitting diode was used to photoirradiate the films to study their photoconductive response as a function of light intensity at 300 K. The results revealed that ZnO films printed by aerosol jet and inkjet techniques exhibited five orders of magnitude photoconductivity, indicating that such films are viable options for use in flexible photodetectors.

  16. Effect of Homo-buffer Layers on the Properties of Sputtering Deposited Ga2O3 Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Jian; Li, Bing; Ma, Yuncheng; Tang, Ke; Huang, Haofei; Hu, Yan; Zou, Tianyu; Wang, Linjun

    2018-05-01

    β- Ga2O3 films were grown by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method. The influence of Ga2O3 buffer layers and annealing treatment on the structural, optical, morphological and electrical properties of Ga2O3 films was studied. The results revealed an improvement of crystalline quality and transmittance of annealed β- Ga2O3 films prepared with homo-buffer layers. Ga2O3 film UV photodetectors were fabricated with a new B and Ga co-doped ZnO films (BGZO)/Au interdigitated electrode. A good ohmic contact was formed between the film and the electrode. For the detector based on Ga2O3 films with buffer layers, a higher value of photo response and faster response times was obtained.

  17. Comparative study of textured and epitaxial ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryu, Y. R.; Zhu, S.; Wrobel, J. M.; Jeong, H. M.; Miceli, P. F.; White, H. W.

    2000-06-01

    ZnO films were synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on GaAs and α-Al 2O 3 substrates. The properties of ZnO films on GaAs and α-Al 2O 3 have been investigated to determine the differences between epitaxial and textured ZnO films. ZnO films on GaAs show very strong emission features associated with exciton transitions as do ZnO films on α-Al 2O 3, while the crystalline structural qualities for ZnO films on α-Al 2O 3 are much better than those for ZnO films on GaAs. The properties of ZnO films are studied by comparing highly oriented, textured ZnO films on GaAs with epitaxial ZnO films on α-Al 2O 3 synthesized along the c-axis.

  18. EXAFS and XANES investigation of (Li, Ni) codoped ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition.

    PubMed

    Mino, Lorenzo; Gianolio, Diego; Bardelli, Fabrizio; Prestipino, Carmelo; Senthil Kumar, E; Bellarmine, F; Ramanjaneyulu, M; Lamberti, Carlo; Ramachandra Rao, M S

    2013-09-25

    Ni doped, Li doped and (Li, Ni) codoped ZnO thin films were successfully grown using a pulsed laser deposition technique. Undoped and doped ZnO thin films were investigated using extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES). Preliminary investigations on the Zn K-edge of the undoped and doped ZnO thin films revealed that doping has not influenced the average Zn-Zn bond length and Debye-Waller factor. This shows that both Ni and Li doping do not appreciably affect the average local environment of Zn. All the doped ZnO thin films exhibited more than 50% of substitutional Ni, with a maximum of 77% for 2% Ni and 2% Li doped ZnO thin film. The contribution of Ni metal to the EXAFS signal clearly reveals the presence of Ni clusters. The Ni-Ni distance in the Ni(0) nanoclusters, which are formed in the film, is shorter with respect to the reference Ni metal foil and the Debye-Waller factor is higher. Both facts perfectly reflect what is expected for metal nanoparticles. At the highest doping concentration (5%), the presence of Li favors the growth of a secondary NiO phase. Indeed, 2% Ni and 5% Li doped ZnO thin film shows %Nisub = 75 ± 11, %Nimet = 10 ± 8, %NiO = 15 ± 8. XANES studies further confirm that the substitutional Ni is more than 50% in all the samples. These results explain the observed magnetic properties.

  19. Structural, electrical and optical properties of Al-Sn codoped ZnO transparent conducting layer deposited by spray pyrolysis technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bedia, A.; Bedia, F. Z.; Aillerie, M.; Maloufi, N.

    2017-11-01

    Low cost Al-Sn codoped ZnO (ATZO) Transparent Conductive Oxide films were deposited by spray pyrolysis on glass substrate. The influence of Al-Sn codoping on the structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films was studied by comparing the same properties obtained in undoped ZnO, Al doped ZnO (AZO) and Sn doped ZnO (TZO) thin films. The so-obtained films crystallized in hexagonal wurtzite structure. The morphology and structural defects have been investigated by both High resolution Field Effect Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and Raman spectroscopy at 532 nm excitation source. In the visible region, the undoped and doped films show an average transmittance of the order of 85%, while for ATZO thin film, it is of the order of 72%, which points out a degradation of the optical properties due to the co-doping. The optical band gap of ATZO thin film achieves 3.31eV and this shift, compared to the referred samples is attributed to the Burstein-Moss (BM) and band gap narrowing (BGN) opposite effects which is due to the increase of the carrier concentration in degenerate semiconductors. Within all the samples, the ATZO thin film exhibits the lowest electrical resistivity of 4.56 × 10-3 Ωcm with a Hall mobility equal to 2.13 cm2 V-1s-1, and the highest carrier concentration of 6.41 × 1020 cm-3. The performance of ATZO transparent conductive oxide film are determined by its figure of merit (φTC), found equal to 1.69 10-4 Ω-1, which is a suitable value for potentially high-performance solar cell applications.

  20. Effect of co-doping process on topography, optical and electrical properties of ZnO nanostructured

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mohamed, R.; Mamat, M. H.; Malek, M. F.; Ismail, A. S.; Yusoff, M. M.; Syamsir, S. A.; Khusaimi, Z.; Rusop, M.

    2018-05-01

    We investigated of Undoped ZnO and Magnesium (Mg)-Aluminium (Al) co-doped Zinc Oxide (MAZO) nanostructured films were prepared by sol gel spin coating technique. The surface topography was analyzed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Based on the AFM results, Root Mean Square (RMS) of MAZO films have rougher surface compared to pure ZnO films. The optical and electrical properties of thin film samples were characterized using Uv-Vis spectroscopy and two point probes, current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The transmittance spectra for both thin samples was above 80% in the visible wavelength. The MAZO film shows the highest conductivity compared to pure ZnO films. This result indicates that the improvement of carrier mobility throughout doping process and possibly contribute by extra ion charge.

  1. Non-polar a-plane ZnO films grown on r-Al2O3 substrates using GaN buffer layers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, C. X.; Chen, W.; Pan, X. H.; Chen, S. S.; Ye, Z. Z.; Huang, J. Y.

    2016-09-01

    In this work, GaN buffer layer has been used to grow non-polar a-plane ZnO films by laser-assisted and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The thickness of GaN buffer layer ranges from ∼3 to 12 nm. The GaN buffer thickness effect on the properties of a-plane ZnO thin films is carefully investigated. The results show that the surface morphology, crystal quality and optical properties of a-plane ZnO films are strongly correlated with the thickness of GaN buffer layer. It was found that with 6 nm GaN buffer layer, a-plane ZnO films display the best crystal quality with X-ray diffraction rocking curve full-width at half-maximum of only 161 arcsec for the (101) reflection.

  2. Annealing in tellurium-nitrogen co-doped ZnO films: The roles of intrinsic zinc defects

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tang, Kun, E-mail: ktang@nju.edu.cn; Gu, Ran; Gu, Shulin, E-mail: slgu@nju.edu.cn

    2015-04-07

    In this article, the authors have conducted an extensive investigation on the roles of intrinsic zinc defects by annealing of a batch of Te-N co-doped ZnO films. The formation and annihilation of Zn interstitial (Zn{sub i}) clusters have been found in samples with different annealing temperatures. Electrical and Raman measurements have shown that the Zn{sub i} clusters are a significant compensation source to holes, and the Te co-doping has a notable effect on suppressing the Zn{sub i} clusters. Meanwhile, shallow acceptors have been identified in photoluminescence spectra. The N{sub O}-Zn-Te complex, zinc vacancy (V{sub Zn})-N{sub O} complex, and V{sub Zn}more » clusters are thought to be the candidates as the shallow acceptors. The evolution of shallow acceptors upon annealing temperature have been also studied. The clustering of V{sub Zn} at high annealing temperature is proposed to be a possible candidate as a stable acceptor in ZnO.« less

  3. Velocity surface measurements for ZnO films over /001/-cut GaAs

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kim, Yoonkee; Hunt, William D.; Liu, Yongsheng; Jen, Cheng-Kuei

    1994-01-01

    A potential application for a piezoelectic film deposited on a GaAs substrate is the monolithic integration of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices with GaAs electronics. Knowledge of the SAW properties of the filmed structure is critical for the optimum design of such devices. In this article, the measurements of the velocity surface, which directly affects the SAW diffraction, on the bare and metallized ZnO/SiO2 or Si3N4/GaAs /001/-cut samples are reported using two different techniques: (1) knife-edge laser probe, (2) line-focus-beam scanning acoustic microscope. Comparisons, such as measurement accuracy and tradeoffs, between the former (dry) and the latter (wet) method are given. It is found that near the group of zone axes (110) propagation direction the autocollimating SAW property of the bare GaAs changes into a noncollimating one for the layered structure, but a reversed phenomenon exists near the group of zone axes (100) direction. The passivation layer of SiO2 or Si3N4 (less than 0.2 micrometer thick) and the metallization layer change the relative velocity but do not significantly affect the velocity surface. On the other hand, the passivation layer reduces the propagation loss by 0.5-1.3 dB/microseconds at 240 MHz depending upon the ZnO film thickness. Our SAW propagation measurements agree well with theorectical calculations. We have also obtained the anisotropy factors for samples with ZnO films of 1.6, 2.8, and 4.0 micrometer thickness. Comparisons concerning the piezoelectric coupling and acoustic loss between dc triode and rf magnetron sputtered ZnO films are provided.

  4. Reflection Properties of Metallic Gratings on ZnO Films over GaAs Substrates

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hickernell, Fred S.; Kim, Yoonkee; Hunt, William D.

    1994-01-01

    A potential application for piezoelectric film deposited on GaAs substrates is the monolithic integration of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices with GaAs electronics. Metallic gratings are basic elements required for the construction of such devices, and analyzing the reflectivity and the velocity change due to metallic gratings is often a critical design parameter. In this article, Datta and Hunsinger technique is extended to the case of a multilayered structure, and the developed technique is applied to analyze shorted and open gratings on ZnO films sputtered over (001)-cut (110)-propagating GaAs substrates. The analysis shows that zero reflectivity of shorted gratings can be obtained by a combination of the ZnO film and the metal thickness and the metalization ratio of the grating. Experiments are performed on shorted and an open gratings (with the center frequency of about 180 MHz) for three different metal thicknesses over ZnO films which are 0.8 and 2.6 micrometers thick. From the experiments, zero reflectivity at the resonant frequency of the grating is observed for a reasonable thickness (h/Alpha = 0.5%) of aluminum metalization. The velocity shift between the shorted and the open grating is also measured to be 0.18 MHz and 0.25 MHz for 0.8 and 1.6 micrometers respectively. The measured data show relatively good agreement with theoretical predictions.

  5. A boron and gallium co-doped ZnO intermediate layer for ZnO/Si heterojunction diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lu, Yuanxi; Huang, Jian; Li, Bing; Tang, Ke; Ma, Yuncheng; Cao, Meng; Wang, Lin; Wang, Linjun

    2018-01-01

    ZnO (Zinc oxide)/Si (Silicon) heterojunctions were prepared by depositing n-type ZnO films on p-type single crystal Si substrates using magnetron sputtering. A boron and gallium co-doped ZnO (BGZO) high conductivity intermediate layer was deposited between aurum (Au) electrodes and ZnO films. The influence of the BGZO layer on the properties of Au/ZnO contacts and the performance of ZnO/Si heterojunctions was investigated. The results show an improvement in contact resistance by introducing the BGZO layer. Compared with the ZnO/Si heterojunction, the BGZO/ZnO/Si heterojunction exhibits a larger forward current, a smaller turn-on voltage and higher ratio of ultraviolet (UV) photo current/dark current.

  6. Direct formation of InN-codoped p-ZnO/n-GaN heterojunction diode by solgel spin-coating scheme.

    PubMed

    Huang, Chun-Ying; Lee, Ya-Ju; Lin, Tai-Yuan; Chang, Shao-Lun; Lian, Jan-Tian; Lin, Hsiu-Mei; Chen, Nie-Chuan; Yang, Ying-Jay

    2014-02-15

    In this work p-ZnO/n-GaN heterojunction diodes were directly formed on the Si substrate by a combination of cost-effective solgel spin-coating and thermal annealing treatment. Spin-coated n-ZnO films on InN/GaN/Si wafers were converted to p-type polarity after thermal treatment of proper annealing durations. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals that InN-codoped ZnO films have grown as the standard hexagonal wurtzite structure with a preferential orientation in the (002) direction. The intensity of the (002) peak decreases for a further extended annealing duration, indicating the greater incorporation of dopants, also confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and low-temperature photoluminescence. Hall and resistivity measurements validate that our p-type ZnO film has a high carrier concentration of 3.73×10¹⁷ cm⁻³, a high mobility of 210 cm²/Vs, and a low resistivity of 0.079 Ωcm. As a result, the proposed p-ZnO/n-GaN heterojunction diode displays a well-behaving current rectification of a typical p-n junction, and the measured current versus voltage (I-V) characteristic is hence well described by the modified Shockley equation. The research on the fabrication of p-ZnO/n-GaN heterojunctions shown here generates useful advances in the production of cost-effective ZnO-based optoelectronic devices.

  7. Synergistic effect of Indium and Gallium co-doping on growth behavior and physical properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods.

    PubMed

    Lim, Jun Hyung; Lee, Seung Muk; Kim, Hyun-Suk; Kim, Hyun You; Park, Jozeph; Jung, Seung-Boo; Park, Geun Chul; Kim, Jungho; Joo, Jinho

    2017-02-03

    We synthesized ZnO nanorods (NRs) using simple hydrothermal method, with the simultaneous incorporation of gallium (Ga) and indium (In), in addition, investigated the co-doping effect on the morphology, microstructure, electronic structure, and electrical/optical properties. The growth behavior of the doped NRs was affected by the nuclei density and polarity of the (001) plane. The c-axis parameter of the co-doped NRs was similar to that of undoped NRs due to the compensated lattice distortion caused by the presence of dopants that are both larger (In 3+ ) and smaller (Ga 3+ ) than the host Zn 2+ cations. Red shifts in the ultraviolet emission peaks were observed in all doped NRs, owing to the combined effects of NR size, band gap renormalization, and the presence of stacking faults created by the dopant-induced lattice distortions. In addition, the NR/p-GaN diodes using co-doped NRs exhibited superior electrical conductivity compared to the other specimens due to the increase in the charge carrier density of NRs and the relatively large effective contact area of (001) planes. The simultaneous doping of In and Ga is therefore anticipated to provide a broader range of optical, physical, and electrical properties of ZnO NRs for a variety of opto-electronic applications.

  8. Synergistic effect of Indium and Gallium co-doping on growth behavior and physical properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lim, Jun Hyung; Lee, Seung Muk; Kim, Hyun-Suk; Kim, Hyun You; Park, Jozeph; Jung, Seung-Boo; Park, Geun Chul; Kim, Jungho; Joo, Jinho

    2017-02-01

    We synthesized ZnO nanorods (NRs) using simple hydrothermal method, with the simultaneous incorporation of gallium (Ga) and indium (In), in addition, investigated the co-doping effect on the morphology, microstructure, electronic structure, and electrical/optical properties. The growth behavior of the doped NRs was affected by the nuclei density and polarity of the (001) plane. The c-axis parameter of the co-doped NRs was similar to that of undoped NRs due to the compensated lattice distortion caused by the presence of dopants that are both larger (In3+) and smaller (Ga3+) than the host Zn2+ cations. Red shifts in the ultraviolet emission peaks were observed in all doped NRs, owing to the combined effects of NR size, band gap renormalization, and the presence of stacking faults created by the dopant-induced lattice distortions. In addition, the NR/p-GaN diodes using co-doped NRs exhibited superior electrical conductivity compared to the other specimens due to the increase in the charge carrier density of NRs and the relatively large effective contact area of (001) planes. The simultaneous doping of In and Ga is therefore anticipated to provide a broader range of optical, physical, and electrical properties of ZnO NRs for a variety of opto-electronic applications.

  9. Synergistic effect of Indium and Gallium co-doping on growth behavior and physical properties of hydrothermally grown ZnO nanorods

    PubMed Central

    Lim, Jun Hyung; Lee, Seung Muk; Kim, Hyun-Suk; Kim, Hyun You; Park, Jozeph; Jung, Seung-Boo; Park, Geun Chul; Kim, Jungho; Joo, Jinho

    2017-01-01

    We synthesized ZnO nanorods (NRs) using simple hydrothermal method, with the simultaneous incorporation of gallium (Ga) and indium (In), in addition, investigated the co-doping effect on the morphology, microstructure, electronic structure, and electrical/optical properties. The growth behavior of the doped NRs was affected by the nuclei density and polarity of the (001) plane. The c-axis parameter of the co-doped NRs was similar to that of undoped NRs due to the compensated lattice distortion caused by the presence of dopants that are both larger (In3+) and smaller (Ga3+) than the host Zn2+ cations. Red shifts in the ultraviolet emission peaks were observed in all doped NRs, owing to the combined effects of NR size, band gap renormalization, and the presence of stacking faults created by the dopant-induced lattice distortions. In addition, the NR/p-GaN diodes using co-doped NRs exhibited superior electrical conductivity compared to the other specimens due to the increase in the charge carrier density of NRs and the relatively large effective contact area of (001) planes. The simultaneous doping of In and Ga is therefore anticipated to provide a broader range of optical, physical, and electrical properties of ZnO NRs for a variety of opto-electronic applications. PMID:28155879

  10. Ultraviolet electroluminescence from hetero p-n junction between a single ZnO microsphere and p-GaN thin film.

    PubMed

    Tetsuyama, Norihiro; Fusazaki, Koshi; Mizokami, Yasuaki; Shimogaki, Tetsuya; Higashihata, Mitsuhiro; Nakamura, Daisuke; Okada, Tatsuo

    2014-04-21

    We report ultraviolet electroluminescence from a hetero p-n junction between a single ZnO microsphere and p-GaN thin film. ZnO microspheres, which have high crystalline quality, have been synthesized by ablating a ZnO sintered target. It was found that synthesized ZnO microspheres had a high-optical property and exhibit the laser action in the whispering gallery mode under pulsed optical pumping. A hetero p-n junction was formed between the single ZnO microsphere/ p-GaN thin film, and a good rectifying property with a turn-on voltage of approximately 6 V was observed in I-V characteristic across the junction. Ultraviolet and visible electroluminescence were observed under forward bias.

  11. Co-Doped ZnO nanoparticles: minireview.

    PubMed

    Djerdj, Igor; Jaglicić, Zvonko; Arcon, Denis; Niederberger, Markus

    2010-07-01

    Diluted magnetic semiconductors with a Curie temperature exceeding 300 K are promising candidates for spintronic devices and spin-based electronic technologies. We review recent achievements in the field of one of them: Co-doped ZnO at the nanoparticulate scale.

  12. Evidence of cation vacancy induced room temperature ferromagnetism in Li-N codoped ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, B. Y.; Yao, B.; Li, Y. F.; Liu, A. M.; Zhang, Z. Z.; Li, B. H.; Xing, G. Z.; Wu, T.; Qin, X. B.; Zhao, D. X.; Shan, C. X.; Shen, D. Z.

    2011-10-01

    Room temperature ferromagnetism (RTFM) was observed in Li-N codoped ZnO thin films [ZnO:(Li, N)] fabricated by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, and p-type ZnO:(Li, N) shows the strongest RTFM. Positron annihilation spectroscopy and low temperature photoluminescence measurements indicate that the RTFM in ZnO:(Li, N) is attributed to the defect complex related to VZn, such as VZn and Lii-NO-VZn complex, well supported by first-principles calculations. The incorporation of NO can stabilize and enhance the RTFM of ZnO:(Li, N) by combining with Lii to form Lii-NO complex, which restrains the compensation of Lii for VZn and makes the ZnO:(Li, N) conduct in p-type.

  13. The electrical properties of low pressure chemical vapor deposition Ga doped ZnO thin films depending on chemical bonding configuration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jung, Hanearl; Kim, Doyoung; Kim, Hyungjun

    2014-04-01

    The electrical and chemical properties of low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD) Ga doped ZnO (ZnO:Ga) films were systematically investigated using Hall measurement and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). Diethylzinc (DEZ) and O2 gas were used as precursor and reactant gas, respectively, and trimethyl gallium (TMGa) was used as a Ga doping source. Initially, the electrical properties of undoped LP-CVD ZnO films depending on the partial pressure of DEZ and O2 ratio were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) by changing partial pressure of DEZ from 40 to 140 mTorr and that of O2 from 40 to 80 mTorr. The resistivity was reduced by Ga doping from 7.24 × 10-3 Ω cm for undoped ZnO to 2.05 × 10-3 Ω cm for Ga doped ZnO at the TMG pressure of 8 mTorr. The change of electric properties of Ga doped ZnO with varying the amount of Ga dopants was systematically discussed based on the structural crystallinity and chemical bonding configuration, analyzed by XRD and XPS, respectively.

  14. Optical and structural properties of individual Co-doped ZnO microwires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolomys, O. F.; Strelchuk, V. V.; Rarata, S. V.; Hayn, R.; Savoyant, A.; Giovannelli, F.; Delorme, F.; Tkach, V.

    2018-06-01

    The Co-doped ZnO microwires (MWs) were grown using the optical furnace method. We used Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and optical absorption spectroscopy to systematic investigation of the optical and structural properties of Co-doped ZnO MWs. The SEM analysis reveals that Co-doped ZnO MWs has hexagonal facets and cavity inside. The EDS results confirmed the presence and non-uniform distribution of Co impurities in the samples. Co doping of ZnO MWs leads to the decreased intensity, drastically broadening and high-energy shift of the NBE PL band. The red emission band at 1.85 eV originates from 2E(2G) → 4A2 (4F) intra-3d-transition of Co2+ in the ZnO lattice has been observed. The intense structured absorption bands within the near infrared ranges 3800-4800 and 5500-9000 cm-1 are caused by electronic spin-allowed transitions 4T2(F) ← 4A2(F) and 4T1(F) ← 4A2(F) of the tetrahedrally coordinated Co2+ (3 d7) ions substituting Zn2+ ions in Co-doped ZnO MWs. Micro-Raman studies of Co doped ZnO MWs show doping/disorder induced additional modes as compared to the undoped sample. The resonant enhancement of the additional local Co-related A1-symmetry Raman mode is observed in the parallel polarization geometry y(z , z) ybar . For the Co doped ZnO MWs, the enhancement of the additional Co-related local vibration mode with an increase in the excitation photon energy is also observed in the Raman spectra.

  15. Structure and Properties of Al and Ga- Doped ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Temizer, Namik Kemal

    Recently there is tremendous interest in Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) research due to the unlimited and exciting application areas. Current research is mostly focused on finding alternative low cost and sustainable materials in order to replace indium tin oxide (ITO), which caused serious concern due to the increasing cost of indium and chemical stability issues of ITO. The primary aim of this research is to develop alternative TCO materials with superior properties in order to increase the efficiency in optoelectronic applications, as well as to study the properties of these materials to fully characterize them. We have grown Al and Ga-doped ZnO films with an optimized composition under different deposition conditions in order to understand the effect of processing parameters on the film properties. We report a detailed investigation on the structure-property correlations in Ga and Al codoped ZnO films on c-sapphire substrates where the thin film microstructure varies from nanocrystalline to single crystal. We have achieved highly epitaxial films with very high optical transmittance (close to 90%) and low resistivity (˜110muO-cm) values. The films grown in an ambient oxygen partial pressure (PO2 ) of 50 mTorr and at growth temperatures from room temperature to 600°C showed semiconducting behavior, whereas samples grown at a Po2 of 1 mTorr showed metallic nature. The most striking feature is the occurrence of resistivity minima at relatively high temperatures around 110 K in films deposited at high temperatures. The structure-property correlations reveal that point defects play an important role in modifying the structural, optical, electrical and magnetic properties and such changes in physical properties are controlled predominantly by the defect content. To gain a better understanding of the conduction processes in doped ZnO thin films, we have studied the temperature variation of resistivity of some selected samples that showed some interesting behavior

  16. Effects of Annealing Temperature on Properties of Ti-Ga-Doped ZnO Films Deposited on Flexible Substrates.

    PubMed

    Chen, Tao-Hsing; Chen, Ting-You

    2015-11-03

    An investigation is performed into the optical, electrical, and microstructural properties of Ti-Ga-doped ZnO films deposited on polyimide (PI) flexible substrates and then annealed at temperatures of 300 °C, 400 °C, and 450 °C, respectively. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results show that all of the films have a strong (002) Ga doped ZnO (GZO) preferential orientation. As the annealing temperature is increased to 400 °C, the optical transmittance increases and the electrical resistivity decreases. However, as the temperature is further increased to 450 °C, the transmittance reduces and the resistivity increases due to a carbonization of the PI substrate. Finally, the crystallinity of the ZnO film improves with an increasing annealing temperature only up to 400 °C and is accompanied by a smaller crystallite size and a lower surface roughness.

  17. Remarkable optical red shift and extremely high optical absorption coefficient of V-Ga co-doped TiO2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deng, Quanrong; Han, Xiaoping; Gao, Yun; Shao, Guosheng

    2012-07-01

    A first attempt has been made to study the effect of codoping of transition metal and sp metal on the electronic structure and associated optical properties of TiO2, through V-Ga codoped thin films. V-Ga codoped rutile TiO2 films were fabricated on fused quartz substrates using pulsed laser ablation, followed by heat treatment at high temperatures. Gigantic redshift in the optical absorption edge was observed in V-Ga co-doped TiO2 materials, from UV to infrared region with high absorption coefficient. Through combined structural characterization and theoretical modeling, this is attributed to the p-d hybridization between the two metals. This leads to additional energy bands to overlap with the minimum of the conduction band, leading to remarkably narrowed band gap free of mid-gap states. The direct-gap of the co-doped phase is key to the remarkably high optical absorption coefficient of the coped titania.

  18. Luminescence studies of laser MBE grown GaN on ZnO nanostructures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dewan, Sheetal; Tomar, Monika; Kapoor, Ashok K.; Tandon, R. P.; Gupta, Vinay

    2017-08-01

    GaN films have been successfully fabricated using Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy (LMBE) technique on bare c-plane sapphire substrate and ZnO nanostructures (NS) decorated Si (100) substrates. The ZnO nanostructures were grown on Si (100) substrate using high pressure assisted Pulsed laser deposition technique in inert gas ambience. Discrete nanostructured morphology of ZnO was obtained using the PLD growth on Si substrates. Photoluminescence studies performed on the prepared GaN/Sapphire and GaN/ZnO-NS/Si systems, revealed a significant PL enhancement in case of GaN/ZnO-NS/Si system compared to the former. The hexagonal nucleation sites provided by the ZnO nanostructures strategically enhanced the emission of GaN film grown by Laser MBE Technique at relatively lower temperature of 700°C. The obtained results are attractive for the realization of highly luminescent GaN films on Si substrate for photonic devices.

  19. Rapid synthesis of Co, Ni co-doped ZnO nanoparticles: Optical and electrochemical properties

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Romeiro, Fernanda C.; Marinho, Juliane Z.; Lemos, Samantha C.S.

    We report for the first time a rapid preparation of Zn{sub 1−2x}Co{sub x}Ni{sub x}O nanoparticles via a versatile and environmentally friendly route, microwave-assisted hydrothermal (MAH) method. The Co, Ni co-doped ZnO nanoparticles present an effect on photoluminescence and electrochemical properties, exhibiting excellent electrocatalytic performance compared to undoped ZnO sample. Photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements indicated the reduction of the green–orange–red visible emission region after adding Co and Ni ions, revealing the formation of alternative pathways for the generated recombination. The presence of these metallic ions into ZnO creates different defects, contributing to a local structural disorder, as revealed by Raman spectra. Electrochemicalmore » experiments revealed that the electrocatalytic oxidation of dopamine on ZnO attached to multi-walled carbon nanotubes improved significantly in the Co, Ni co-doped ZnO samples when compared to pure ZnO. - Graphical abstract: Rapid synthesis of Co, Ni co-doped ZnO nanoparticles: optical and electrochemical properties. Co, Ni co-doped ZnO hexagonal nanoparticles with optical and electrocatalytic properties were successfully prepared for the first time using a microwave hydrothermal method at mild conditions. - Highlights: • Co{sup 2+} and Ni{sup 2+} into ZnO lattice obtained a mild and environmentally friendly process. • The heating method strongly influences in the growth and shape of the particles. • Short-range defects generated by the ions insertion affects the photoluminescence. • Doped ZnO nanoparticles improve the electrocatalytic properties of pure oxide.« less

  20. Impurity distribution and microstructure of Ga-doped ZnO films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kvit, A. V.; Yankovich, A. B.; Avrutin, V.; Liu, H.; Izyumskaya, N.; Özgür, Ü.; Morkoç, H.; Voyles, P. M.

    2012-12-01

    We report microstructural characterization of heavily Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films on GaN and sapphire by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. Growth under oxygen-rich and metal-rich growth conditions leads to changes in the GZO polarity and different extended defects. For GZO layers on sapphire, the primary extended defects are voids, inversion domain boundaries, and low-angle grain boundaries. Ga doping of ZnO grown under metal-rich conditions causes a switch from pure oxygen polarity to mixed oxygen and zinc polarity in small domains. Electron energy loss spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy spectrum imaging show that Ga is homogeneous, but other residual impurities tend to accumulate at the GZO surface and at extended defects. GZO grown on GaN on c-plane sapphire has Zn polarity and no voids. There are misfit dislocations at the interfaces between GZO and an undoped ZnO buffer layer and at the buffer/GaN interface. Low-angle grain boundaries are the only threading microstructural defects. The potential effects of different extended defects and impurity distributions on free carrier scattering are discussed.

  1. Hydrogen induced electric conduction in undoped ZnO and Ga-doped ZnO thin films: Creating native donors via reduction, hydrogen donors, and reactivating extrinsic donors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Akazawa, Housei, E-mail: akazawa.housei@lab.ntt.co.jp

    2014-09-01

    The manner in which hydrogen atoms contribute to the electric conduction of undoped ZnO and Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films was investigated. Hydrogen atoms were permeated into these films through annealing in an atmospheric H{sub 2} ambient. Because the creation of hydrogen donors competes with the thermal annihilation of native donors at elevated temperatures, improvements to electric conduction from the initial state can be observed when insulating ZnO films are used as samples. While the resistivity of conductive ZnO films increases when annealing them in a vacuum, the degree of increase is mitigated when they are annealed in H{sub 2}. Hydrogenationmore » of ZnO crystals was evidenced by the appearance of OH absorption signals around a wavelength of 2700 nm in the optical transmittance spectra. The lowest resistivity that was achieved by H{sub 2} annealing was limited to 1–2 × 10{sup −2} Ω cm, which is one order of magnitude higher than that by native donors (2–3 × 10{sup −3} Ω cm). Hence, all native donors are converted to hydrogen donors. In contrast, GZO films that have resistivities yet to be improved become more conductive after annealing in H{sub 2} ambient, which is in the opposite direction of GZO films that become more resistive after vacuum annealing. Hydrogen atoms incorporated into GZO crystals should assist in reactivating Ga{sup 3+} donors.« less

  2. Codoping of zinc and tungsten for practical high-performance amorphous indium-based oxide thin film transistors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kizu, Takio, E-mail: KIZU.Takio@nims.go.jp, E-mail: TSUKAGOSHI.Kazuhito@nims.go.jp; Mitoma, Nobuhiko; Tsukagoshi, Kazuhito, E-mail: KIZU.Takio@nims.go.jp, E-mail: TSUKAGOSHI.Kazuhito@nims.go.jp

    2015-09-28

    Using practical high-density sputtering targets, we investigated the effect of Zn and W codoping on the thermal stability of the amorphous film and the electrical characteristics in thin film transistors. zinc oxide is a potentially conductive component while W oxide is an oxygen vacancy suppressor in oxide films. The oxygen vacancy from In-O and Zn-O was suppressed by the W additive because of the high oxygen bond dissociation energy. With controlled codoping of W and Zn, we demonstrated a high mobility with a maximum mobility of 40 cm{sup 2}/V s with good stability under a negative bias stress in InWZnO thinmore » film transistors.« less

  3. Low resistivity and low compensation ratio Ga-doped ZnO films grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Cheng-Yu; Hsiao, Li-Han; Chyi, Jen-Inn

    2015-09-01

    In this study, Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were deposited on GaN templates by using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. To obtain low resistivity GZO films, in-situ post-annealing under Zn overpressure was carried out to avoid the generation of acceptor-liked Zn vacancies. The resultant films showed optical transparency over 95% in the visible spectral range. By reducing the acceptor-like defects, GZO films with compensation ratio near 0.4 and resistivity simultaneously lower than 1×10-4 Ω cm have been successfully demonstrated.

  4. Facile synthesis of highly uniform Mn/Co-codoped ZnO nanowires: optical, electrical, and magnetic properties.

    PubMed

    Li, Huifeng; Huang, Yunhua; Zhang, Qi; Qiao, Yi; Gu, Yousong; Liu, Jing; Zhang, Yue

    2011-02-01

    In this article, Co/Mn-codoped ZnO nanowires (NWs) were successfully synthesized on a silicon substrate by the thermal evaporation method with Au catalyst. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicated that the Co/Mn-codoped ZnO NWs are a hexagonal wurtzite structure without a second phase, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy revealed that the Co and Mn ions were introduced into the ZnO NWs with the content of ∼0.8 at% and ∼1.2 at%, respectively. Photoluminescence spectra and Raman spectra showed that the Co/Mn were doped into the NWs and resulted in the shift of the near-band-edge emission. Moreover, the novel Raman peak at 519.3 cm(-1) has suggested that the two kinds of cations via doping could affect the local polarizability. Compared with the undoped ZnO NW, the electrical measurement showed that the Co/Mn-codoping enhanced the conductivity by an order of magnitude due to the presence of Co, Mn cations. The electron mobility and carrier concentration of a fabricated field effect transistor (FET) device is 679 cm2 V(-1) s(-1) and 2×10(18) cm(-3), respectively. Furthermore, the M-H curve demonstrated that the Co/Mn-codoped ZnO NWs have obvious ferromagnetic characteristics at room temperature. Our study enhances the understanding of the novel performances of transition-metal codoped ZnO NWs and also provides a potential way to fabricate optoelectronic devices.

  5. Direct Heteroepitaxial Growth of ZnO over GaN Crystal in Aqueous Solution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hamada, Takahiro; Ito, Akihiro; Nagao, Nobuaki; Suzuki, Nobuyasu; Fujii, Eiji; Tsujimura, Ayumu

    2013-04-01

    We report on the structural and electrical properties of ZnO films grown on surface-treated GaN/Al2O3 substrates by chemical bath deposition. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the ZnO films had a single-crystalline wurtzite structure with c-axis orientation. The ZnO film exhibited n-type conduction with a carrier concentration of 6.9 ×1018 cm-3, an electron mobility of 41 cm2/(V.s), and a resistivity of 2.2 ×10-2 Ω.cm. A low specific contact resistivity of 4.3 ×10-3 Ω.cm2 was obtained at the ZnO/n-GaN interface. Additionally, the ZnO film exhibited high transparency in the visible and infrared region.

  6. Codoped direct-gap semiconductor scintillators

    DOEpatents

    Derenzo, Stephen Edward [Pinole, CA; Bourret-Courchesne, Edith [Berkeley, CA; Weber, Marvin J [Danville, CA; Klintenberg, Mattias K [Berkeley, CA

    2008-07-29

    Fast, bright inorganic scintillators at room temperature are based on radiative electron-hole recombination in direct-gap semiconductors, e.g. CdS and ZnO. The direct-gap semiconductor is codoped with two different impurity atoms to convert the semiconductor to a fast, high luminosity scintillator. The codopant scheme is based on dopant band to dopant trap recombination. One dopant provides a significant concentration of carriers of one type (electrons or holes) and the other dopant traps carriers of the other type. Examples include CdS:In,Te; CdS:In,Ag; CdS:In,Na; ZnO:Ga,P; ZnO:Ga,N; ZnO:Ga,S; and GaN:Ge,Mg.

  7. Codoped direct-gap semiconductor scintillators

    DOEpatents

    Derenzo, Stephen E.; Bourret-Courchesne, Edith; Weber, Marvin J.; Klintenberg, Mattias K.

    2006-05-23

    Fast, bright inorganic scintillators at room temperature are based on radiative electron-hole recombination in direct-gap semiconductors, e.g. CdS and ZnO. The direct-gap semiconductor is codoped with two different impurity atoms to convert the semiconductor to a fast, high luminosity scintillator. The codopant scheme is based on dopant band to dopant trap recombination. One dopant provides a significant concentration of carriers of one type (electrons or holes) and the other dopant traps carriers of the other type. Examples include CdS:In,Te; CdS:In,Ag; CdS:In,Na; ZnO:Ga,P; ZnO:Ga,N; ZnO:Ga,S; and GaN:Ge,Mg.

  8. Synthesis of p-type ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ryu, Y. R.; Zhu, S.; Look, D. C.; Wrobel, J. M.; Jeong, H. M.; White, H. W.

    2000-06-01

    p-Type ZnO obtained by arsenic (As) doping is reported for the first time. Arsenic-doped ZnO (ZnO : As) films have been deposited on (0 0 1)-GaAs substrates by pulsed laser ablation. The process of synthesizing p-type ZnO : As films was performed in an ambient gas of ultra-pure (99.999%) oxygen. The ambient gas pressure was 35 mTorr with the substrate temperature in the range 300-450°C. ZnO films grown at 400°C and 450°C are p-type and As is a good acceptor. The acceptor peak is located at 3.32 eV and its binding energy is about 100 meV. Acceptor concentrations of As atoms in ZnO films were in the range from high 10 17 to high 10 21 atoms/cm 3 as determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and Hall effect measurements.

  9. High-Throughput Continuous Hydrothermal Synthesis of Transparent Conducting Aluminum and Gallium Co-doped Zinc Oxides.

    PubMed

    Howard, Dougal P; Marchand, Peter; McCafferty, Liam; Carmalt, Claire J; Parkin, Ivan P; Darr, Jawwad A

    2017-04-10

    High-throughput continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis was used to generate a library of aluminum and gallium-codoped zinc oxide nanoparticles of specific atomic ratios. Resistivities of the materials were determined by Hall Effect measurements on heat-treated pressed discs and the results collated into a conductivity-composition map. Optimal resistivities of ∼9 × 10 -3 Ω cm were reproducibly achieved for several samples, for example, codoped ZnO with 2 at% Ga and 1 at% Al. The optimum sample on balance of performance and cost was deemed to be ZnO codoped with 3 at% Al and 1 at% Ga.

  10. Enhanced room temperature ferromagnetism in electrodeposited Co-doped ZnO nanostructured thin films by controlling the oxygen vacancy defects

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Simimol, A.; Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Calicut 673601; Anappara, Aji A.

    We report the growth of un-doped and cobalt doped ZnO nanostructures fabricated on FTO coated glass substrates using electrodeposition method. A detailed study on the effects of dopant concentration on morphology, structural, optical, and magnetic properties of the ZnO nanostructures has been carried out systematically by varying the Co concentration (c.{sub Co}) from 0.01 to 1 mM. For c.{sub Co }≤ 0.2 mM, h-wurtzite phase with no secondary phases of Co were present in the ZnO nanostructures. For c.{sub Co} ≤ 0.2 mM, the photoluminescence spectra exhibited a decrease in the intensity of ultraviolet emission as well as band-gap narrowing with an increase in dopantmore » concentration. All the doped samples displayed a broad emission in the visible range and its intensity increased with an increase in Co concentration. It was found that the defect centers such as oxygen vacancies and zinc interstitials were the source of the visible emission. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies revealed, Co was primarily in the divalent state, replacing the Zn ion inside the tetrahedral crystal site of ZnO without forming any cluster or secondary phases of Co. The un-doped ZnO nanorods exhibited diamagnetic behavior and it remained up to a c.{sub Co} of 0.05 mM, while for c.{sub Co }> 0.05 mM, the ZnO nanostructures exhibited ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. The coercivity increased to 695 G for 0.2 mM Co-doped sample and then it decreased for c.{sub Co }> 0.2 mM. Our results illustrate that up to a threshold concentration of 0.2 mM, the strong ferromagnetism is due to the oxygen vacancy defects centers, which exist in the Co-doped ZnO nanostructures. The origin of strong ferromagnetism at room temperature in Co-doped ZnO nanostructures is attributed to the s-d exchange interaction between the localized spin moments resulting from the oxygen vacancies and d electrons of Co{sup 2+} ions. Our findings provide a new insight for

  11. Preparation of Ga-doped ZnO films by pulsed dc magnetron sputtering with cylindrical rotating target for thin film solar cell applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shin, Beom-Ki; Lee, Tae-Il; Park, Ji-Hyeon; Park, Kang-Il; Ahn, Kyung-Jun; Park, Sung-Kee; Lee, Woong; Myoung, Jae-Min

    2011-11-01

    Applicability of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films for thin film solar cells (TFSCs) was investigated by preparing GZO films via pulsed dc magnetron sputtering (PDMS) with rotating target. The GZO films showed improved crystallinity and increasing degree of Ga doping with increasing thickness to a limit of 1000 nm. The films also fulfilled requirements for the transparent electrodes of TFSCs in terms of electrical and optical properties. Moreover, the films exhibited good texturing potential based on etching studies with diluted HCl, which yielded an improved light trapping capability without significant degradation in electrical propreties. It is therefore suggested that the surface-textured GZO films prepared via PDMS and etching are promising candidates for indium-free transparent electrodes for TFSCs.

  12. ZnO Films on {001}-Cut <110>-Propagating GaAs Substrates for Surface Acoustic Wave Device Applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kim, Yoonkee; Hunt, William D.; Hickernell, Frederick S.; Higgins, Robert J.; Jen, Cheng-Kuei

    1995-01-01

    A potential application for piezoelectric films on GaAs substrates is the monolithic integration of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices with GaAs electronics. Knowledge of the SAW properties of the layered structure is critical for the optimum and accurate design of such devices. The acoustic properties of ZnO films sputtered on {001}-cut <110> -propagating GaAs substrates are investigated in this article, including SAW Velocity effective piezoelectric coupling constant, propagation loss. diffraction, velocity surface, and reflectivity of shorted and open metallic gratings. The measurements of these essential SAW properties for the frequency range between 180 and 360 MHz have been performed using a knife-edge laser probe for film thicknesses over the range of 1.6-4 micron and with films or different grain sizes. The high quality of dc triode sputtered films was observed as evidenced by high K(exp 2) and low attenuation. The measurements of the velocity surface, which directly affects the SAW diffraction, on the bare and metalized ZnO on SiO2, or Si3N4 on {001}-cut GaAs samples are reported using two different techniques: 1) knife-edge laser probe, 2) line-focus-beam scanning acoustic microscope. It was found that near the <110> propagation direction, the focusing SAW property of the bare GaAs changes into a nonfocusing one for the layered structure, but a reversed phenomenon exists near the <100> direction. Furthermore, to some extent the diffraction of the substrate can be controlled with the film thickness. The reflectivity of shorted and open gratings are also analyzed and measured. Zero reflectivity is observed for a shorted grating. There is good agreement between the measured data and theoretical values.

  13. Preparation of a Non-Polar ZnO Film on a Single-Crystal NdGaO3 Substrate by the RF Sputtering Method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kashiwaba, Y.; Tanaka, Y.; Sakuma, M.; Abe, T.; Imai, Y.; Kawasaki, K.; Nakagawa, A.; Niikura, I.; Kashiwaba, Y.; Osada, H.

    2018-04-01

    Preparation of non-polar ZnO ( 11\\overline{2} 0 ) films on single-crystal NdGaO3 (NGO) (001) substrates was successfully achieved by the radio frequency (RF) sputtering method. Orientation, deposition rate, and surface roughness of ZnO films strongly depend on the working pressure. Characteristics of ZnO films deposited on single-crystal NGO (001) substrates were compared with those of ZnO films deposited on single-crystal sapphire ( 01\\overline{1} 2 ) substrates. An x-ray diffraction peak of the ZnO ( 11\\overline{2} 0 ) plane was observed on ZnO films deposited on single-crystal NGO (001) substrates under working pressure of less than 0.5 Pa. On the other hand, uniaxially oriented ZnO ( 11\\overline{2} 0 ) films on single-crystal sapphire ( 01\\overline{1} 2 ) substrates were observed under working pressure of 0.1 Pa. The mechanism by which the diffraction angle of the ZnO ( 11\\overline{2} 0 ) plane on single-crystal NGO (001) substrates was shifted is discussed on the basis of anisotropic stress of lattice mismatch. The deposition rate of ZnO films decreased with an increase in working pressure, and the deposition rate on single-crystal NGO (001) substrates was larger than that on single-crystal sapphire ( 01\\overline{1} 2 ) substrates. Root mean square (RMS) roughness of ZnO films increased with an increase in working pressure, and RMS roughness of ZnO films on single-crystal NGO (001) substrates was smaller than that of ZnO films on single-crystal sapphire ( 01\\overline{1} 2 ) substrates even though the film thickness on single-crystal NGO (001) substrates was greater than that on sapphire substrates. It is thought that a single-crystal NGO (001) substrate is useful for deposition of non-polar ZnO ( 11\\overline{2} 0 ) films.

  14. Effects on the magnetic and optical properties of Co-doped ZnO at different electronic states

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huo, Qingyu; Xu, Zhenchao; Qu, Linfeng

    2017-12-01

    Both blue and red shifts in the absorption spectrum of Co-doped ZnO have been reported at a similar concentration range of doped Co. Moreover, the sources of magnetism of Co-doped ZnO are controversial. To solve these problems, the geometry optimization and energy of different Co-doped ZnO systems were calculated at the states of electron spin polarization and nonspin polarization by adopting plane-wave ultra-soft pseudopotential technology based on density function theory. At the state of electron nonspin polarization, the total energies increased as the concentration of Co-doped increased. The doped systems also became unstable. The formation energies increased and doping became difficult. Furthermore, the band gaps widened and the absorption spectrum exhibited a blue shift. The band gaps were corrected by local-density approximation + U at the state of electron spin polarization. The magnetic moments of the doped systems weakened as the concentration of doped Co increased. The magnetic moments were derived from the coupling effects of sp-d. The band gaps narrowed and the absorption spectrum exhibited a red shift. The inconsistencies of the band gaps and absorption spectrum at the states of electron spin polarization and nonspin polarization were first discovered in this research, and the sources of Co-doped ZnO magnetism were also reinterpreted.

  15. Effects on the optical properties and conductivity of Ag-N co-doped ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Zhenchao; Hou, Qingyu; Qu, Lingfeng

    2017-01-01

    Nowadays, the studies of the effects on the optical bandgap, absorption spectrum, and electrical properties of Ag-N co-doped ZnO have been extensively investigated. However, Ag and N atoms in doped systems are randomly doped, and the asymmetric structure of ZnO is yet to be explored. In this paper, the geometric structure, stability, density of states, absorption spectra and conductivity of pure and Ag-N co-doped Zn1-xAgxO1-xNx(x=0.03125, 0.0417 and 0.0625) in different orientations are calculated by using plane-wave ultrasoft pseudopotential on the basis of density functional theory with GGA+U method. Results show that the volume, equivalent total energy and formation energy of the doped system increase as the concentration of Ag-N co-doped Zn1-xAgxO1-xNx increases at the same doping mode. The doped systems also become unstable, and difficulty in doping. At the same concentration of Ag-N co-doped Zn1-xAgxO1-xNx, the systems with Ag-N along the c-axis orientation is unstable, and doping is difficult. The optical bandgap of Ag-N co-doped systems is narrower than that of the pure ZnO. At the same doping mode, the optical bandgap of the systems with Ag-N perpendicular to the c-axis orientation becomes narrow as the concentration of Ag-N co-doped Zn1-xAgxO1-xNx increases. The absorption spectra of the doped systems exhibit a red shift, and this red shift becomes increasingly significant as the concentration of Ag-N co-doped Zn1-xAgxO1-xNx increases. Under the same condition, the relative hole concentrations of the doped systems increases, the hole effective mass in valence band maximum decreases, the hole mobility decreases, the ionization energy decreases, Bohr radius increases, the conductance increases and the conductivity become better. Our results may be used as a basis for the designing and preparation of new optical and electrical materials for Ag-N co-doped ZnO applied in low temperature end of temperature difference battery.

  16. Enhancement of multiple-phonon resonant Raman scattering in Co-doped ZnO nanorods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Phan, The-Long; Vincent, Roger; Cherns, David; Dan, Nguyen Huy; Yu, Seong-Cho

    2008-08-01

    We have studied Raman scattering in Co-doped ZnO nanorods prepared by thermal diffusion. Experimental results show that the features of their non-resonant spectra are similar to Raman spectra from Co-doped ZnO materials investigated previously. Under resonant conditions, however, there is a strong enhancement of multiple-phonon Raman scattering processes. Longitudinal optical (LO)-phonon overtones up to eleventh order are observed. The modes become more obvious when the Co concentration diffused into ZnO nanorods goes to an appropriate value. This phenomenon is explained due to the shift of the band-gap energy and also due to the decrease in the intensity of near-band-edge luminescence. Our observation is in agreement with the prediction [J. F. Scott, Phys. Rev. B 2, 1209 (1970)] that the number of LO-phonon lines in ZnO is higher than that observed for CdS.

  17. Hydrogen-surfactant-assisted coherent growth of GaN on ZnO substrate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Jingzhao; Zhang, Yiou; Tse, Kinfai; Zhu, Junyi

    2018-01-01

    Heterostructures of wurtzite based devices have attracted great research interest because of the tremendous success of GaN in light emitting diodes (LED) industry. High-quality GaN thin films on inexpensive and lattice matched ZnO substrates are both commercially and technologically desirable. Intrinsic wetting conditions, however, forbid such heterostructures as the energy of ZnO polar surfaces is much lower than that of GaN polar surfaces, resulting in 3D growth mode and poor crystal quality. Based on first-principles calculations, we propose the use of surfactant hydrogen to dramatically alter the growth mode of the heterostructures. Stable H-involved surface configurations and interfaces are investigated with the help of our newly developed modelling techniques. The temperature and chemical potential dependence of our proposed strategy, which is critical in experiments, is predicted by applying the experimental Gibbs free energy of H2. Our thermodynamic wetting condition analysis is a crucial step for the growth of GaN on ZnO, and we find that introducing H will not degrade the stability of ZnO substrate. This approach will allow the growth of high-quality GaN thin films on ZnO substrates. We believe that our new strategy may reduce the manufactory cost, improve the crystal quality, and improve the efficiency of GaN-based devices.

  18. ZnO for solar cell and thermoelectric applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Chuanle; Ghods, Amirhossein; Yunghans, Kelcy L.; Saravade, Vishal G.; Patel, Paresh V.; Jiang, Xiaodong; Kucukgok, Bahadir; Lu, Na; Ferguson, Ian

    2017-03-01

    ZnO-based materials show promise in energy harvesting applications, such as piezoelectric, photovoltaic and thermoelectric. In this work, ZnO-based vertical Schottky barrier solar cells were fabricated by MOCVD de- position of ZnO thin films on ITO back ohmic contact, while Ag served as the top Schottky contact. Various rapid thermal annealing conditions were studied to modify the carrier density and crystal quality. Greater than 200 nm thick ZnO films formed polycrystalline crystal structure, and were used to demonstrate Schottky solar cells. I-V characterizations of the devices showed photovoltaic performance, but but need further development. This is the first demonstration of vertical Schottky barrier solar cell based on wide bandgap ZnO film. Thin film and bulk ZnO grown by MOCVD or melt growth were also investigated in regards to their room- temperature thermoelectric properties. The Seebeck coefficient of bulk ZnO was found to be much larger than that of thin film ZnO at room temperature due to the higher crystal quality in bulk materials. The Seebeck coefficients decrease while the carrier concentration increases due to the crystal defects caused by the charge carriers. The co-doped bulk Zn0:96Ga0:02Al0:02O showed enhanced power factors, lower thermal conductivities and promising ZT values in the whole temperature range (300-1300 K).

  19. ZnO films on /001/-cut (110)-propagating GaAs substrates for surface acoustic wave device applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hickernell, Frederick S.; Higgins, Robert J.; Jen, Cheng-Kuei; Kim, Yoonkee; Hunt, William D.

    1995-01-01

    A potential application for piezoelectric films substrates is the monolithic integration of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices with GaAs electronics. Knowledge of the SAW properties of the layered structure is critical for the optimum and accurate design of such devices. The acoustic properties of ZnO films sputtered on /001/-cut group of (110) zone axes-propagating GaAs substrates are investigated in this article, including SAW velocity, effective piezoelectric coupling constant, propagation loss, diffraction, velocity surface, and reflectivity of shorted and open metallic gratings. The measurements of these essential SAW properties for the frequency range between 180 and 360 MHz have been performed using a knife-edge laser probe for film thicknesses over the range of 1.6-4 micron and with films of different grain sizes. The high quality of dc triode sputtered films was observed as evidenced by high K(sup 2) and low attenuation. The measurements of the velocity surface, which directly affects the SAW diffraction, on the bare and metalized ZnO on SiO2 or Si3N4 on /001/-cut GaAs samples are reported using two different techniques: (1) knife-edge laser probe, (2) line-focus-beam scanning acoustic microscope. It was found that near the group of (110) zone axes propagation direction, the focusing SAW property of the bare GaAs changes into a nonfocusing one for the layered structure, but a reversed phenomenon exists near the (100) direction. Furthermore, to some extent the diffraction of the substrate can be controlled with the film thickness. The reflectivity of shorted and open gratings are also analyzed and measured. Zero reflectivity is observed for a shorted grating. There is good agreement between the measured data and theoretical values.

  20. Solution epitaxy of gallium-doped ZnO on p-GaN for heterojunction light-emitting diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Le, H. Q.; Lim, S. K.; Goh, G. K. L.; Chua, S. J.; Ang, N. S. S.; Liu, W.

    2010-09-01

    We report white light emission from a Ga-doped ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diode which was fabricated by growing gallium-doped ZnO film on the p-GaN in water at 90°C. As determined from Ga-doped ZnO films grown on (111) oriented MgAl2O4 spinel single crystal substrates, thermal treatment at 600°C in nitrogen ambient leads to a carrier concentration of 3.1×1020 cm-3 (and carrier mobility of 28 cm2/Vs) which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the undoped films. Electroluminescence emissions at wavelengths of 393 nm (3.155 eV) and 529.5 nm (2.4 eV) were observed under forward bias in the heterojunction diode and white light could be visibly observed. The high concentration of electrons supplied from the Ga-doped ZnO films helped to enhance the carrier recombination and increase the light-emitting efficiency of the heterojunction diode.

  1. Microstructural analysis and thermoelectric properties of Sn-Al co-doped ZnO ceramics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hoemke, Joshua, E-mail: jhoemke@sigma.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp; Tochigi, Eita; Shibata, Naoya

    2016-08-26

    Sn-Al co-doped polycrystalline ZnO ceramics were prepared by sintering in air. Phase and microstructure analysis was performed by X-ray diffraction and SEM-EDS and thermoelectric properties were measured. XRD analysis showed a ZnO primary phase as well as secondary phase peaks due to the formation of a Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} spinel phase or SnO{sub 2}(ZnO:Sn-Al){sub m} intergrowth phase. SEM analysis revealed a dense microstructure with a small number of nanometric pores, consistent with the measured density of 5.48 g/cm{sup 3}. An activated electrical conductivity characteristic of a semiconducting material was observed as well as a negative Seebeck coefficient with both valuesmore » increasing in absolute value from RT to 730 °C. The power factor had a maximum value of 3.73×10{sup −4} W m{sup −1} K{sup −2} at 730 °C. Thermal conductivity measurements showed a significant reduction over the measured temperature range compared to undoped ZnO. This could be attributed to grain size reduction, the formation of a nanoscale secondary phase or a reduction in crystallinity caused by Sn-Al co-doping. A maximum ZT of 0.06 was obtained at 750 °C for the Sn-Al co-doped ZnO ceramics.« less

  2. Poole-Frenkel effect on electrical characterization of Al-doped ZnO films deposited on p-type GaN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Bohr-Ran; Liao, Chung-Chi; Ke, Wen-Cheng; Chang, Yuan-Ching; Huang, Hao-Ping; Chen, Nai-Chuan

    2014-03-01

    This paper presents the electrical properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films directly grown on two types of p-type GaN thin films. The low-pressure p-GaN thin films (LP-p-GaN) exhibited structural properties of high-density edge-type threading dislocations (TDs) and compensated defects (i.e., nitrogen vacancy). Compared with high-pressure p-GaN thin films (HP-p-GaN), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy of Ga 3d core levels indicated that the surface Fermi-level shifted toward the higher binding-energy side by approximately 0.7 eV. The high-density edge-type TDs and compensated defects enabled surface Fermi-level shifting above the intrinsic Fermi-level, causing the surface of LP-p-GaN thin films to invert to n-type semiconductor. A highly nonlinear increase in leakage current regarding reverse-bias voltage was observed for AZO/LP-p-GaN. The theoretical fits for the reverse-bias voltage region indicated that the field-assisted thermal ionization of carriers from defect associated traps, which is known as the Poole-Frenkel effect, dominated the I-V behavior of AZO/LP-p-GaN. The fitting result estimated the trap energy level at 0.62 eV below the conduction band edge. In addition, the optical band gap increased from 3.50 eV for as-deposited AZO films to 3.62 eV for 300 °C annealed AZO films because of the increased carrier concentration. The increasing Fermi-level of the 300 °C annealed AZO films enabled the carrier transport to move across the interface into the LP-p-GaN thin films without any thermal activated energy. Thus, the Ohmic behavior of AZO contact can be achieved directly on the low-pressure p-GaN films at room temperature.

  3. Fabrication and properties of ZnO/GaN heterostructure nanocolumnar thin film on Si (111) substrate

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Zinc oxide thin films have been obtained on bare and GaN buffer layer decorated Si (111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), respectively. GaN buffer layer was achieved by a two-step method. The structure, surface morphology, composition, and optical properties of these thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, infrared absorption spectra, and photoluminiscence (PL) spectra, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy images indicate that the flower-like grains were presented on the surface of ZnO thin films grown on GaN/Si (111) substrate, while the ZnO thin films grown on Si (111) substrate show the morphology of inclination column. PL spectrum reveals that the ultraviolet emission efficiency of ZnO thin film on GaN buffer layer is high, and the defect emission of ZnO thin film derived from Zni and Vo is low. The results demonstrate that the existence of GaN buffer layer can greatly improve the ZnO thin film on the Si (111) substrate by PLD techniques. PMID:23448090

  4. Fabrication and properties of ZnO/GaN heterostructure nanocolumnar thin film on Si (111) substrate.

    PubMed

    Wei, Xianqi; Zhao, Ranran; Shao, Minghui; Xu, Xijin; Huang, Jinzhao

    2013-02-28

    Zinc oxide thin films have been obtained on bare and GaN buffer layer decorated Si (111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), respectively. GaN buffer layer was achieved by a two-step method. The structure, surface morphology, composition, and optical properties of these thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, infrared absorption spectra, and photoluminiscence (PL) spectra, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy images indicate that the flower-like grains were presented on the surface of ZnO thin films grown on GaN/Si (111) substrate, while the ZnO thin films grown on Si (111) substrate show the morphology of inclination column. PL spectrum reveals that the ultraviolet emission efficiency of ZnO thin film on GaN buffer layer is high, and the defect emission of ZnO thin film derived from Zni and Vo is low. The results demonstrate that the existence of GaN buffer layer can greatly improve the ZnO thin film on the Si (111) substrate by PLD techniques.

  5. One step synthesis of Co/Cr-codoped ZnO nanoparticle with superb adsorption properties for various anionic organic pollutants and its regeneration.

    PubMed

    Li, Zhenjiang; Sun, Yongkai; Xing, Jing; Xing, Yucheng; Meng, Alan

    2018-06-15

    Adsorption is an effective means to remove organic pollutant. However, it is challenging to prepare the adsorbents with high adsorption capacities and their regeneration. Herein, Co/Cr-codoped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) with superb adsorption for dyes and antibiotics have been successfully synthesized by a mild solvothermal method. At the optimal Co:Cr:Zn doping moral ratio of 4:6:100, the maximum adsorption capacities of methyl orange (MO) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) on Co/Cr-codoped ZnO NPs is 1057.90 mg g -1 and 874.46 mg g -1 , respectively. The adsorption process of the sample over MO and TC-HCl both agreed well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model. Adsorption thermodynamics proved that the adsorption of MO and TC-HCl on Co/Cr-codoped ZnO NPs was a spontaneous and endothermic process. The mechanism shows that the surface of Co/Cr-codoped ZnO NPs have more positive charges, larger specific surface area and more crystal defects due to Co 3+ and Cr 3+ substitutes Zn 2+ in ZnO lattice, improving their adsorption property. In addition, Co/Cr-codoped ZnO NPs have also excellent adsorption capacity for Direct Red, Congo Red, Evans Blue and Methyl Blue. More importantly, the regeneration of adsorbents was studied to achieve the reuse of materials, and avoid secondary pollution. Co/Cr-codoped ZnO NPs will be a promising choice for wastewater treatment owing to its excellent adsorption capacity and relatively low cost. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Intrinsic and spatially nonuniform ferromagnetism in Co-doped ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tseng, L. T.; Suter, A.; Wang, Y. R.; Xiang, F. X.; Bian, P.; Ding, X.; Tseng, A.; Hu, H. L.; Fan, H. M.; Zheng, R. K.; Wang, X. L.; Salman, Z.; Prokscha, T.; Suzuki, K.; Liu, R.; Li, S.; Morenzoni, E.; Yi, J. B.

    2017-09-01

    Co doped ZnO films have been deposited by a laser-molecular beam epitaxy system. X-ray diffraction and UV spectra analysis show that Co effectively substitutes the Zn site. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy analysis indicate that there are no clusters. Co dopants are uniformly distributed in ZnO film. Ferromagnetic ordering is observed in all samples deposited under an oxygen partial pressure, PO2=10-3 , 10-5, and 10-7 torr, respectively. However, the magnetization of PO2=10-3 and 10-5 is very small at room temperature. At low temperature, the ferromagnetic ordering is enhanced. Muon spin relaxation (μ SR ) measurements confirm the ferromagnetism in all samples, and the results are consistent with magnetization measurements. From μ SR and TEM analysis, the film deposited under PO2=10-7 torr shows intrinsic ferromagnetism. However, the volume fraction of the ferromagnetism phase is approximately 70%, suggesting that the ferromagnetism is not carrier mediated. Resistivity versus temperature measurements indicate Efros variable range hopping dominates the conductivity. From the above results, we can confirm that a bound magnetic polaron is the origin of the ferromagnetism.

  7. Fabrication and characterization of Ga-doped ZnO / Si heterojunction nanodiodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akgul, Guvenc; Akgul, Funda Aksoy

    2017-02-01

    In this study, temperature-dependent electrical properties of n-type Ga-doped ZnO thin film / p-type Si nanowire heterojunction diodes were reported. Metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) process was performed to fabricate Si nanowires. Ga-doped ZnO films were then deposited onto nanowires through chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique to build three-dimensional nanowire-based heterojunction diodes. Fabricated devices revealed significant diode characteristics in the temperature range of 220 - 360 K. Electrical measurements shown that diodes had a well-defined rectifying behavior with a good rectification ratio of 103 ±3 V at room temperature. Ideality factor (n) were changed from 2.2 to 1.2 with increasing temperature.

  8. Poole-Frenkel effect on electrical characterization of Al-doped ZnO films deposited on p-type GaN

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Huang, Bohr-Ran; Liao, Chung-Chi; Ke, Wen-Cheng, E-mail: wcke@saturn.yzu.edu.tw

    2014-03-21

    This paper presents the electrical properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films directly grown on two types of p-type GaN thin films. The low-pressure p-GaN thin films (LP-p-GaN) exhibited structural properties of high-density edge-type threading dislocations (TDs) and compensated defects (i.e., nitrogen vacancy). Compared with high-pressure p-GaN thin films (HP-p-GaN), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy of Ga 3d core levels indicated that the surface Fermi-level shifted toward the higher binding-energy side by approximately 0.7 eV. The high-density edge-type TDs and compensated defects enabled surface Fermi-level shifting above the intrinsic Fermi-level, causing the surface of LP-p-GaN thin films to invert to n-type semiconductor. A highlymore » nonlinear increase in leakage current regarding reverse-bias voltage was observed for AZO/LP-p-GaN. The theoretical fits for the reverse-bias voltage region indicated that the field-assisted thermal ionization of carriers from defect associated traps, which is known as the Poole-Frenkel effect, dominated the I-V behavior of AZO/LP-p-GaN. The fitting result estimated the trap energy level at 0.62 eV below the conduction band edge. In addition, the optical band gap increased from 3.50 eV for as-deposited AZO films to 3.62 eV for 300 °C annealed AZO films because of the increased carrier concentration. The increasing Fermi-level of the 300 °C annealed AZO films enabled the carrier transport to move across the interface into the LP-p-GaN thin films without any thermal activated energy. Thus, the Ohmic behavior of AZO contact can be achieved directly on the low-pressure p-GaN films at room temperature.« less

  9. Local structure analysis of diluted magnetic semiconductor Co and Al co-doped ZnO nanoparticles

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hyodo, K.; Morimoto, S.; Yamazaki, T.

    2016-02-01

    In this study, Co and Al ions co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (Zn(Al, Co)O NPs) were prepared by our original chemical preparation method. The obtained samples prepared by this method, were encapsulated in amorphous SiO{sub 2}. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed Zn(Al, Co)O NPs had a single-phase nature with hexagonal wurtzite structure. These particle sizes could be controlled to be approximately 30 nm. We investigate the effect that the increase in the carrier has on the magnetization by doping Al to Co-doped ZnO NPs. The local structures were qualitatively analyzed using X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements.

  10. Cd1-xZnxTe photodetectors with transparent conductive ZnO contacts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Ke; Huang, Jian; Lu, Yuanxi; Hu, Yan; Shen, Yibin; Zhang, Jijun; Gu, Qingmiao; Wang, Linjun; Lu, Yicheng

    2018-03-01

    High quality Cd1-xZnxTe (CZT) films were prepared using the close-spaced sublimation (CSS) technique. CZT film UV (ultraviolet) photodetectors were fabricated with B and Ga co-doped ZnO (BGZO) transparent conductive interdigitated contacts. The contact properties of BGZO/CZT were investigated by the transmission line model (TLM). The results indicate that a good ohmic contact is formed between BGZO and CZT with a very low contact resistivity of about 0.26 Ω·cm2. Compared with CZT photodetectors with Au contacts, the detectors with BGZO contacts show a higher value of UV photo response.

  11. Fabrication of tantalum and nitrogen codoped ZnO (Ta, N-ZnO) thin films using the electrospay: twin applications as an excellent transparent electrode and a field emitter.

    PubMed

    Mahmood, Khalid; Park, Seung Bin; Sung, Hyung Jin

    2013-05-01

    The realization of stable p-type nitrogen-doped ZnO thin films with durable and controlled growth is important for the fabrication of nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic devices. ZnO thin films codoped with tantalum and nitrogen (Ta, N-ZnO) were fabricated by using the electrospraying method at an atmospheric pressure. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies demonstrated that all the prepared films were polycrystalline in nature with hexagonal wurtzite structure. In addition, a shift in the XRD patterns was observed, and the crystal orientation was changed at a certain amount of nitrogen (>6 at.%) in the starting solution. Analysis of X-ray diffraction patterns and X-ray photoelectron spectra revealed that nitrogen which was combined with the zinc atom (N-Zn) was successfully doped into the ZnO crystal lattice. It was also observed that 2 at.% tantalum and 6 at.% nitrogen (2 at.% Ta and 6 at.% N) were the optimal dopant amounts to achieve the minimum resistivity of about 9.70 × 10(-5) Ω cm and the maximum transmittance of 98% in the visible region. Consequently, the field-emission characteristics of such a Ta, N-ZnO emitter can exhibit the higher current density of 1.33 mA cm(-2), larger field-enhancement factor (β) of 4706, lower turn-on field of 2.6 V μm(-1), and lower threshold field of 3.5 V μm(-1) attributed to the enhanced conductivity and better crystallinity of films. Moreover, the obtained values of resistivity were closest to the lowest resistivity values among the doped ZnO films as well as to the indium tin oxide (ITO) resistivity values that were previously studied. We confirmed that the tantalum and nitrogen atoms substitution in the ZnO lattice induced positive effects in terms of enhancing the free carrier concentration which will further improve the electrical, optical, and field-emission properties. The proposed electrospraying method was well suitable for the fabrication of Ta, N-ZnO thin films at optimum conditions with superior electrical

  12. Dopant-driven enhancements in the optoelectronic properties of laser ablated ZnO: Ga thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hassan, Ali; Jin, Yuhua; Chao, Feng; Irfan, Muhammad; Jiang, Yijian

    2018-04-01

    Theoretically and experimentally evaluated optoelectronic properties of GZO (Ga-doped zinc oxide) were correlated in the present article. Density functional theory and Hubbard U (DFT + Ud + Up) first-principle calculations were used for the theoretical study. The pulsed laser deposition technique was used to fabricate GZO thin films on p-GaN, Al2O3, and p-Si substrates. X-ray diffraction graphs show single crystal growth of GZO thin films with (002) preferred crystallographic orientation. The chemical composition was studied via energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and no other unwanted impurity-related peaks were found, which indicated the impurity-free thin film growth of GZO. Field emission scanning electron microscopic micrographs revealed noodle-, seed-, and granular-like structures of GZO/GaN, GZO/Al2O3, and GZO/Si, respectively. Uniform growth of GZO/GaN was found due to fewer mismatches between ZnO and GaN (0.09%). Hall effect measurements in the van der Pauw configuration were used to check electrical properties. The highest mobility (53 cm2/Vs) with a high carrier concentration was found with low laser shots (1800). A 5-fold photoluminescence enhancement in the noodle-like structure of GZO/GaN compared with GZO/Al2O3 and GZO/Si was detected. This points toward shape-driven optical properties because the noodle-like structure is more favorable for optical enhancements in GZO thin films. Theoretical (3.539 eV) and experimental (3.54 eV) values of the band-gap were also found to be comparable. Moreover, the lowest resistivity (3.5 × 10-4 Ωcm) with 80% transmittance is evidence that GZO is a successful alternate of ITO.

  13. Effect of growth temperature on the epitaxial growth of ZnO on GaN by ALD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Särkijärvi, Suvi; Sintonen, Sakari; Tuomisto, Filip; Bosund, Markus; Suihkonen, Sami; Lipsanen, Harri

    2014-07-01

    We report on the epitaxial growth of ZnO on GaN template by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Diethylzinc (DEZn) and water vapour (H2O) were used as precursors. The structure and the quality of the grown ZnO layers were studied with scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) measurements and positron annihilation spectroscopy. The ZnO films were confirmed epitaxial, and the film quality was found to improve with increasing deposition temperature in the vicinity of the threshold temperature of two dimensional growth. We conclude that high quality ZnO thin films can be grown by ALD. Interestingly only separate Zn-vacancies were observed in the films, although ZnO thin films typically contain fairly high density of surface pits and vacancy clusters.

  14. Visible electroluminescence from a ZnO nanowires/p-GaN heterojunction light emitting diode.

    PubMed

    Baratto, C; Kumar, R; Comini, E; Faglia, G; Sberveglieri, G

    2015-07-27

    In the current paper we apply catalyst assisted vapour phase growth technique to grow ZnO nanowires (ZnO nws) on p-GaN thin film obtaining EL emission in reverse bias regime. ZnO based LED represents a promising alternative to III-nitride LEDs, as in free devices: the potential is in near-UV emission and visible emission. For ZnO, the use of nanowires ensures good crystallinity of the ZnO, and improved light extraction from the interface when the nanowires are vertically aligned. We prepared ZnO nanowires in a tubular furnace on GaN templates and characterized the p-n ZnO nws/GaN heterojunction for LED applications. SEM microscopy was used to study the growth of nanowires and device preparation. Photoluminescence (PL) and Electroluminescence (EL) spectroscopies were used to characterize the heterojunction, showing that good quality of PL emission is observed from nanowires and visible emission from the junction can be obtained from the region near ZnO contact, starting from onset bias of 6V.

  15. Synergistic effects of Mo and F doping on the quality factor of ZnO thin films prepared by a fully automated home-made nebulizer spray technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ravichandran, K.; Dineshbabu, N.; Arun, T.; Manivasaham, A.; Sindhuja, E.

    2017-01-01

    Transparent conducting oxide films of undoped, Mo doped, Mo + F co-doped ZnO were deposited using a facile homemade nebulizer spray pyrolysis technique. The effects of Mo and F doping on the structural, optical, electrical and surface morphological properties were investigated using XRD, UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy, I-V and Hall probe techniques, FESEM and AFM, and XPS, respectively. The XRD analysis confirms that all the films are well crystallized with hexagonal wurtzite structure. All the synthesized samples exhibit high transmittance (above 85%) in the visible region. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics show the ohmic conduction nature of the films. The Hall probe measurements show that the synergistic effects of Mo and F doping cause desirable improvements in the quality factor of the ZnO films. A minimum resistivity of 5.12 × 10-3 Ω cm with remarkably higher values of mobility and carrier concentration is achieved for Mo (2 at.%) + F (15 at.%) co-doped ZnO films. A considerable variation in the intensity of deep level emission caused by Mo and F doping is observed in the photoluminescence (PL) studies. The presence of the constituent elements in the samples is confirmed by XPS analysis.

  16. Control of Eu Luminescence Centers by Codoping of Mg and Si into Eu-Doped GaN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Dong-gun; Wakamatsu, Ryuta; Koizumi, Atsushi; Terai, Yoshikazu; Fujiwara, Yasufumi

    2013-08-01

    The effects of Mg and Si codoping on Eu luminescence properties have been investigated in Eu-doped GaN (GaN:Eu). The Mg codoping into GaN:Eu produced novel luminescence centers consisting of Eu and Mg, and increased photoluminescence (PL) intensity in Eu,Mg-codoped GaN (GaN:Eu,Mg). However, this increased PL intensity was quenched by thermal annealing in N2 ambient, which is due to activation of Mg acceptors. In GaN:Eu,Mg codoped additionally with Si (GaN:Eu,Mg,Si), on the other hand, the Eu-Mg centers disappeared, while an additional luminescence center appeared. Furthermore, the additional luminescence center showed no quenching under N2 annealing because Si donors compensated for the Mg acceptors in GaN. Thermal quenching of the luminescence center was also approximately half of that in GaN:Eu. These results indicate that the codoping with additional impurities in GaN:Eu is a powerful technique to control Eu luminescence centers for realization of improved device performance in red light-emitting diodes using GaN:Eu.

  17. Formation of p-type ZnO thin film through co-implantation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chuang, Yao-Teng; Liou, Jhe-Wei; Woon, Wei-Yen

    2017-01-01

    We present a study on the formation of p-type ZnO thin film through ion implantation. Group V dopants (N, P) with different ionic radii are implanted into chemical vapor deposition grown ZnO thin film on GaN/sapphire substrates prior to thermal activation. It is found that mono-doped ZnO by N+ implantation results in n-type conductivity under thermal activation. Dual-doped ZnO film with a N:P ion implantation dose ratio of 4:1 is found to be p-type under certain thermal activation conditions. Higher p-type activation levels (1019 cm-3) under a wider thermal activation range are found for the N/P dual-doped ZnO film co-implanted by additional oxygen ions. From high resolution x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy it is concluded that the observed p-type conductivities are a result of the promoted formation of PZn-4NO complex defects via the concurrent substitution of nitrogen at oxygen sites and phosphorus at zinc sites. The enhanced solubility and stability of acceptor defects in oxygen co-implanted dual-doped ZnO film are related to the reduction of oxygen vacancy defects at the surface. Our study demonstrates the prospect of the formation of stable p-type ZnO film through co-implantation.

  18. ZnO thin films and nanostructures for emerging optoelectronic applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rogers, D. J.; Teherani, F. H.; Sandana, V. E.; Razeghi, M.

    2010-02-01

    ZnO-based thin films and nanostructures grown by PLD for various emerging optoelectronic applications. AZO thin films are currently displacing ITO for many TCO applications due to recent improvements in attainable AZO conductivity combined with processing, cost and toxicity advantages. Advances in the channel mobilities and Id on/off ratios in ZnO-based TTFTs have opened up the potential for use as a replacement for a-Si in AM-OLED and AM-LCD screens. Angular-dependent specular reflection measurements of self-forming, moth-eye-like, nanostructure arrays grown by PLD were seen to have <0.5% reflectivity over the whole visible spectrum for angles of incidence between 10 and 60 degrees. Such nanostructures may be useful for applications such as AR coatings on solar cells. Compliant ZnO layers on mismatched/amorphous substrates were shown to have potential for MOVPE regrowth of GaN. This approach could be used as a means to facilitate lift-off of GaN-based LEDs from insulating sapphire substrates and could allow the growth of InGaN-based solar cells on cheap substrates. The green gap in InGaN-based LEDs was combated by substituting low Ts PLD n-ZnO for MOCVD n-GaN in inverted hybrid heterojunctions. This approach maintained the integrity of the InGaN MQWs and gave LEDs with green emission at just over 510 nm. Hybrid n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunctions were also seen to have the potential for UV (375 nm) EL, characteristic of ZnO NBE emission. This suggests that there was significant hole injection into the ZnO and that such LEDs could profit from the relatively high exciton binding energy of ZnO.

  19. Hydrothermally Grown In-doped ZnO Nanorods on p-GaN Films for Color-tunable Heterojunction Light-emitting-diodes

    PubMed Central

    Park, Geun Chul; Hwang, Soo Min; Lee, Seung Muk; Choi, Jun Hyuk; Song, Keun Man; Kim, Hyun You; Kim, Hyun-Suk; Eum, Sung-Jin; Jung, Seung-Boo; Lim, Jun Hyung; Joo, Jinho

    2015-01-01

    The incorporation of doping elements in ZnO nanostructures plays an important role in adjusting the optical and electrical properties in optoelectronic devices. In the present study, we fabricated 1-D ZnO nanorods (NRs) doped with different In contents (0% ~ 5%) on p-GaN films using a facile hydrothermal method, and investigated the effect of the In doping on the morphology and electronic structure of the NRs and the electrical and optical performances of the n-ZnO NRs/p-GaN heterojunction light emitting diodes (LEDs). As the In content increased, the size (diameter and length) of the NRs increased, and the electrical performance of the LEDs improved. From the electroluminescence (EL) spectra, it was found that the broad green-yellow-orange emission band significantly increased with increasing In content due to the increased defect states (oxygen vacancies) in the ZnO NRs, and consequently, the superposition of the emission bands centered at 415 nm and 570 nm led to the generation of white-light. These results suggest that In doping is an effective way to tailor the morphology and the optical, electronic, and electrical properties of ZnO NRs, as well as the EL emission property of heterojunction LEDs. PMID:25988846

  20. Hydrothermally Grown In-doped ZnO Nanorods on p-GaN Films for Color-tunable Heterojunction Light-emitting-diodes.

    PubMed

    Park, Geun Chul; Hwang, Soo Min; Lee, Seung Muk; Choi, Jun Hyuk; Song, Keun Man; Kim, Hyun You; Kim, Hyun-Suk; Eum, Sung-Jin; Jung, Seung-Boo; Lim, Jun Hyung; Joo, Jinho

    2015-05-19

    The incorporation of doping elements in ZnO nanostructures plays an important role in adjusting the optical and electrical properties in optoelectronic devices. In the present study, we fabricated 1-D ZnO nanorods (NRs) doped with different In contents (0% ~ 5%) on p-GaN films using a facile hydrothermal method, and investigated the effect of the In doping on the morphology and electronic structure of the NRs and the electrical and optical performances of the n-ZnO NRs/p-GaN heterojunction light emitting diodes (LEDs). As the In content increased, the size (diameter and length) of the NRs increased, and the electrical performance of the LEDs improved. From the electroluminescence (EL) spectra, it was found that the broad green-yellow-orange emission band significantly increased with increasing In content due to the increased defect states (oxygen vacancies) in the ZnO NRs, and consequently, the superposition of the emission bands centered at 415 nm and 570 nm led to the generation of white-light. These results suggest that In doping is an effective way to tailor the morphology and the optical, electronic, and electrical properties of ZnO NRs, as well as the EL emission property of heterojunction LEDs.

  1. Improvement of electroluminescence performance by integration of ZnO nanowires and single-crystalline films on ZnO/GaN heterojunction

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shi, Zhifeng; Zhang, Yuantao, E-mail: zhangyt@jlu.edu.cn; Cui, Xijun

    2014-03-31

    Heterojunction light-emitting diodes based on n-ZnO nanowires/ZnO single-crystalline films/p-GaN structure have been demonstrated for an improved electroluminescence performance. A highly efficient ultraviolet emission was observed under forward bias. Compared with conventional n-ZnO/p-GaN structure, high internal quantum efficiency and light extraction efficiency were simultaneously considered in the proposed diode. In addition, the diode can work continuously for ∼10 h with only a slight degradation in harsh environments, indicating its good reliability and application prospect in the future. This route opens possibilities for the development of advanced nanoscale devices in which the advantages of ZnO single-crystalline films and nanostructures can be integrated together.

  2. Hydrogen effects on the electroluminescence of n-ZnO nanorod/p-GaN film heterojunction light-emitting diodes.

    PubMed

    Fang, Fang; Zhao, Dongxu; Li, Binghui; Zhang, Zhenzhong; Shen, Dezhen

    2010-07-07

    Through a facile low-temperature solution process, vertically n-type ZnO nanorod arrays were grown on a GaN film to form a n-ZnO nanorod/p-GaN film heterojunction. A study of the electroluminescence (EL) characteristics of the heterojunction in air and in air with 2000 ppm hydrogen revealed the sensitivity of such a device to the surrounding atmosphere. The additional hydrogen shallow donors increased the effective electron concentration in ZnO nanorods and the EL recombination zone changed from the ZnO nanorods to the GaN film, which can be identified visually from the color change.

  3. Characteristics of GaN-based LEDs using Ga-doped or In-doped ZnO transparent conductive layers grown by atomic layer deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yen, Kuo-Yi; Chiu, Chien-Hua; Hsiao, Chi-Ying; Li, Chun-Wei; Chou, Chien-Hua; Lo, Ko-Ying; Chen, Tzu-Pei; Lin, Chu-Hsien; Lin, Tai-Yuan; Gong, Jyh-Rong

    2014-02-01

    Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) and In-doped ZnO (IZO) films were prepared by atomic layer deposition (ALD), and the ALD-grown GZO (or IZO) films with (or without) N2 annealing were employed to serve as transparent conducting layers (TCLs) in InGaN/GaN (multiple quantum well) MQW LEDs. Based on θ-to-2θ X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses, the N2-annealed GZO was found to show almost the same lattice constant c as ZnO does, while the lattice constant c of a N2-annealed IZO was detected to be larger than that of the ZnO. It appears that the implementation of N2-annealed ALD-grown GZO (or IZO) in an InGaN/GaN MQW LED allows to enable light extraction and forward voltage reduction of the LED under certain conditions. At 20 mA operating condition, the 400 °C N2-annealed n-GZO-coated and the 600 °C N2-annealed n-IZO-coated InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs were found to exhibit optimized forward voltages of 3.1 and 3.2 V, respectively, with the specific contact resistances of the n-GZO/p-GaN and n-IZO/p-GaN contacts being 4.1×10-3 and 8.8×10-3 Ω-cm2. By comparing with an InGaN/GaN MQW LED structure having a commercial-grade indium tin oxide (ITO) TCL, the 400 °C N2-annealed n-GZO-coated InGaN/GaN MQW LED shows an increment of light output power of 15% at 20 mA. It is believed that the enhanced light extraction of the n-GZO-coated InGaN/GaN MQW LED is due to a higher refractive index of n-GZO than that of ITO along with a comparable optical transmittance of n-GZO to that of ITO.

  4. Effect of precursor on epitaxially grown of ZnO thin film on p-GaN/sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrate by hydrothermal technique

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sahoo, Trilochan; Ju, Jin-Woo; Kannan, V.

    2008-03-04

    Single crystalline ZnO thin film on p-GaN/sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrate, using two different precursors by hydrothermal route at a temperature of 90 deg. C were successfully grown. The effect of starting precursor on crystalline nature, surface morphology and optical emission of the films were studied. ZnO thin films were grown in aqueous solution of zinc acetate and zinc nitrate. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that all the thin films were single crystalline in nature and exhibited wurtzite symmetry and c-axis orientation. The thin films obtained with zinc nitrate had a more pitted rough surface morphology compared to the filmmore » grown in zinc acetate. However the thickness of the films remained unaffected by the nature of the starting precursor. Sharp luminescence peaks were observed from the thin films almost at identical energies but deep level emission was slightly prominent for the thin film grown in zinc nitrate.« less

  5. Efficiencies of Eu{sup 3+} ions and hydrogen atoms as donors in ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Akazawa, Housei, E-mail: akazawa.housei@lab.ntt.co.jp

    2016-09-15

    The donor efficiencies of Eu{sup 3+} ions and hydrogen atoms in ZnO crystalline films were investigated with reference to that of Ga{sup 3+} ions. It was found that Eu{sup 3+} ions acted as extrinsic donors in ZnO:Eu films, yielding a resistivity of 1.8 × 10{sup −3} Ω cm at a doping level of 1 at. %. This value is comparable to one for intrinsic donors in undoped ZnO films. The conductivity was maintained as the deposition temperature was increased to 200 °C, and this is evidence for the contribution of extrinsic donors. Deposition of Ga-doped and Eu-doped ZnO films in an H{sub 2}O gasmore » flow produced oxyhydrogenated ZnO:(Ga, H) and ZnO:(Eu, H) films in which the Ga{sup 3+} and Eu{sup 3+} donors were deactivated by oxidization. Nevertheless, hydrogen donors contributed to electrical conduction yielding a resistivity of 1 × 10{sup −2} Ω cm. Postannealing in an H{sub 2} gas ambient alleviated the excessive oxidization of the films and thereby reactivated the donor action of Ga{sup 3+} and Eu{sup 3+} ions, causing the resistivity to recover to 10{sup −3} Ω cm for ZnO:(Ga, H) and 10{sup −2} Ω cm for ZnO:(Eu, H). In contrast, vacuum annealing of ZnO:(Ga, H) and ZnO:(Eu, H) films increased resistivity through removal of hydrogen donors while not affecting the oxidized condition of the samples.« less

  6. Structural and optoelectronic properties of ZnGaO thin film by pulsed laser deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Han, Xiaowei; Wang, Li; Li, Shufeng; Gao, Dongwen; Pan, Yong

    2018-01-01

    ZnO has attracted much attention because of its high-energy gap and exciton binding energy at room temperature. Compared to ZnO thin films, ZnGaO thin films are more resistive to oxidation and have smaller deformation of lattice. In this study, the high purity ZnSe and Ga2O3 powders were weighted at a molar ratio of 18:1. Se was oxidized to Se2O3 and separated from the mixture powders by using conventional solid state reaction method in air, and the ZnGaO ceramic target was prepared. We fabricated the ZnGaO films on silica glass by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method under different oxygen pressure at room temperature. The as-grown films were tested by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscope (AFM) to diagnose the crystal structure and surface morphology. Moreover, we obtained the optical transmittance of ZnGaO film and found that the electrical conductivity capacity varied with the increase of oxygen pressure.

  7. Polarity in GaN and ZnO: Theory, measurement, growth, and devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zúñiga-Pérez, Jesús; Consonni, Vincent; Lymperakis, Liverios; Kong, Xiang; Trampert, Achim; Fernández-Garrido, Sergio; Brandt, Oliver; Renevier, Hubert; Keller, Stacia; Hestroffer, Karine; Wagner, Markus R.; Reparaz, Juan Sebastián; Akyol, Fatih; Rajan, Siddharth; Rennesson, Stéphanie; Palacios, Tomás; Feuillet, Guy

    2016-12-01

    The polar nature of the wurtzite crystalline structure of GaN and ZnO results in the existence of a spontaneous electric polarization within these materials and their associated alloys (Ga,Al,In)N and (Zn,Mg,Cd)O. The polarity has also important consequences on the stability of the different crystallographic surfaces, and this becomes especially important when considering epitaxial growth. Furthermore, the internal polarization fields may adversely affect the properties of optoelectronic devices but is also used as a potential advantage for advanced electronic devices. In this article, polarity-related issues in GaN and ZnO are reviewed, going from theoretical considerations to electronic and optoelectronic devices, through thin film, and nanostructure growth. The necessary theoretical background is first introduced and the stability of the cation and anion polarity surfaces is discussed. For assessing the polarity, one has to make use of specific characterization methods, which are described in detail. Subsequently, the nucleation and growth mechanisms of thin films and nanostructures, including nanowires, are presented, reviewing the specific growth conditions that allow controlling the polarity of such objects. Eventually, the demonstrated and/or expected effects of polarity on the properties and performances of optoelectronic and electronic devices are reported. The present review is intended to yield an in-depth view of some of the hot topics related to polarity in GaN and ZnO, a fast growing subject over the last decade.

  8. Effects of the ZnO layer on the structure and white light emission properties of a ZnS:Mn/GaN nanocomposite system.

    PubMed

    Wang, Cai-Feng; Hu, Bo

    2017-10-01

    ZnO films were inserted between the ZnS:Mn films and GaN substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The structure, morphology, and optical properties of the ZnS:Mn/ZnO/GaN nanocomposite systems have been investigated. X-ray diffraction results show that there are three diffraction peaks located at 28.4°, 34.4°, and 34.1°, which correspond to the β-ZnS(111), ZnO(002), and GaN(002) planes, respectively. Due to the insertion of ZnO films, the diffraction peak intensity of ZnS:Mn in ZnS:Mn/ZnO/GaN is stronger than that of ZnS:Mn in ZnS:Mn/GaN, and the full width at half-maximum is smaller. Though the transmittance of ZnS:Mn/ZnO films is slightly lower than that of ZnS:Mn films, the transmittance is still higher than 80%. Compared with ZnS:Mn/GaN, an ultraviolet (UV) emission at 387 nm (originated from the near-band emission of ZnO) and a green light emission at about 520 nm appeared in the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of ZnS:Mn/ZnO/GaN, in addition to the blue emission at 435 nm and the orange-red emission at 580 nm. The emission at 520 nm may be related to the deep-level emission from ZnO and the interface of ZnS:Mn/ZnO. The PL spectrum of ZnS:Mn/ZnO/GaN covers the visible region from the blue light to the red light (400-700 nm), and its color coordinate and color temperature are (0.3103,0.3063) and 6869 K, respectively, presenting strong white light emission.

  9. Vacuum-annealing induced enhancements in the transparent conducting properties of Mo  +  F doped ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dineshbabu, N.; Ravichandran, K.

    2017-09-01

    The decisive aim of the present study is to enhance the transparent conducting properties of Mo  +  F co-doped ZnO films through annealing. In this work, Mo  +  F co-doped ZnO (MFZO) films were deposited on glass substrates at a deposition temperature of 350 °C using a home-made nebulizer spray pyrolysis technique and the prepared samples were annealed under air and vacuum atmosphere at 400 °C for 2 h. The structural, electrical, optical, surface morphological and elemental properties of as-deposited, air-annealed and vacuum-annealed samples were compared using various analytical techniques. The vacuum-annealed sample shows lowest resistivity of 1.364  ×  10-3 Ω cm and high transmittance of 90% in the visible region with high ohmic conducting nature. The optical bandgap of the sample was found to be increased to 3.36 eV after vacuum annealing treatment. The XRD patterns of the films confirmed the polycrystalline nature. The PL measurements show the defect levels of the deposited films. The FESEM and AFM studies show an increase in the grain size and roughness of the films, respectively, after vacuum-annealing treatment. The presence of the elements before and after annealing treatment was confirmed using XPS analysis.

  10. Effects of substrate on the structure and orientation of ZnO thin film grown by rf-magnetron sputtering

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, H. F.; Chua, S. J.; Hu, G. X.

    2007-10-15

    X-ray diffractions, Nomarski microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and photoluminescence have been used to study the effects of substrate on the structure and orientation of ZnO thin films grown by rf-magnetron sputtering. GaAs(001), GaAs(111), Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0002) (c-plane), and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}(1102) (r-plane) wafers have been selected as substrates in this study. X-ray diffractions reveal that the ZnO film grown on GaAs(001) substrate is purely textured with a high c-axis orientation while that grown on GaAs(111) substrate is a single ZnO(0002) crystal; a polycrystalline structure with a large-single-crystal area of ZnO(0002) is obtained on a c-plane Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} substrate whilemore » a ZnO(1120) single crystal is formed on an r-plane Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} substrate. There is absence of significant difference between the photoluminescence spectra collected from ZnO/GaAs(001), ZnO/GaAs(111), and ZnO/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}(0002), while the photoluminescence from ZnO/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}(1102) shows a reduced intensity together with an increased linewidth, which is, likely, due to the increased incorporation of native defects during the growth of ZnO(1120)« less

  11. Efficient photocatalytic performance enhancement in Co-doped ZnO nanowires coupled with CuS nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Wei; Wang, Guojing; Feng, Yimeng; Li, Zhengcao

    2018-01-01

    In this research, a kind of highly efficient semiconductor photocatalyst was fabricated by depositing CuS nanoparticles uniformly on the surface of Co-doped ZnO nanowires. ZnO nanowires were synthesized by hydrothermal method and CuS nanoparticles were modified by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). By conducting methyl orange (MO) degradation experiments under the illumination of visible light, the photocatalytic activity of Co-doped ZnO nanowires modified with CuS nanoparticles was found to be nearly three times active when compared to bare ZnO nanowires. Its superior photocatalytic performance has two main reasons. The doped Co2+ ions can inhibit the recombination of photo-generated electron-hole pairs and decrease the optical bandgap, while the p-n heterostructure can enhance the visible light absorption ability and promote the separation of photo-excited charge carriers. Furthermore, the effect of the amount of deposited CuS nanoparticles on the photocatalysis was also investigated. The photocatalytic efficiency firstly raised along with the increment of SILAR cycle times and reached a maximum at 10 cycles but then decreased as the cycle times continue to increase. This originates from that an excessive amount of CuS would not only cover the active reacting sites, but also serve as recombination centers. Overall, this new nanostructure is expected to work as an efficient photocatalyst.

  12. Effects of Nitrogen and Hydrogen Codoping on the Electrical Performance and Reliability of InGaZnO Thin-Film Transistors.

    PubMed

    Abliz, Ablat; Gao, Qingguo; Wan, Da; Liu, Xingqiang; Xu, Lei; Liu, Chuansheng; Jiang, Changzhong; Li, Xuefei; Chen, Huipeng; Guo, Tailiang; Li, Jinchai; Liao, Lei

    2017-03-29

    Despite intensive research on improvement in electrical performances of ZnO-based thin-film transistors (TFTs), the instability issues have limited their applications for complementary electronics. Herein, we have investigated the effect of nitrogen and hydrogen (N/H) codoping on the electrical performance and reliability of amorphous InGaZnO (α-IGZO) TFTs. The performance and bias stress stability of α-IGZO device were simultaneously improved by N/H plasma treatment with a high field-effect mobility of 45.3 cm 2 /(V s) and small shifts of threshold voltage (V th ). On the basis of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis, the improved electrical performances of α-IGZO TFT should be attributed to the appropriate amount of N/H codoping, which could not only control the V th and carrier concentration efficiently, but also passivate the defects such as oxygen vacancy due to the formation of stable Zn-N and N-H bonds. Meanwhile, low-frequency noise analysis indicates that the average trap density near the α-IGZO/SiO 2 interface is reduced by the nitrogen and hydrogen plasma treatment. This method could provide a step toward the development of α-IGZO TFTs for potential applications in next-generation high-definition optoelectronic displays.

  13. Influence of Silver and Gold Nanoparticles and Thin Layers on Charge Carrier Generation in InGaN/GaN Multiple Quantum Well Structures and Crystalline Zinc Oxide Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mezdrogina, M. M.; Vinogradov, A. Ya.; Kozhanova, Yu. V.; Levitskii, V. S.

    2018-04-01

    It has been shown that Ag and Au nanoparticles and thin layers influence charge carrier generation in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structures and crystalline ZnO films owing to the surface morphology heterogeneity of the semiconductors. When nanoparticles 10 < d < 20 nm in size are applied on InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structures with surface morphology less nonuniform than that of ZnO films, the radiation intensity has turned out to grow considerably because of a plasmon resonance with the participation of localized plasmons. The application of Ag or Au layers on the surface of the structures strongly attenuates the radiation. When Ag and Au nanoparticles are applied on crystalline ZnO films obtained by rf magnetron sputtering, the radiation intensity in the short-wavelength part of the spectrum increases insignificantly because of their highly heterogeneous surface morphology.

  14. Study of Doped ZnO Films Synthesized by Combining Vapor Gases and Pulsed Laser Deposition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zhu, Shen; Su, Ching-Hua; Lehoczky, Sandor L.; George, M. A.

    2000-01-01

    The properties and structure of the ZnO material are similar to those of the GaN. Since an excitonic binding energy of ZnO is about 60 meV, it has strong potential for excitonic lasing at the room temperature. This makes synthesizing ZnO films for applications attractive. However, there are several hurdles in fabricating electro-optical devices from ZnO. One of those is in growing doped p-type ZnO films. Although techniques have been developed for the doping of both p-type and n-type ZnO, this remains an area that can be improved. In this presentation, we will report the experimental results of using both thermal vapor and pulsed laser deposition to grow doped ZnO films. The films are deposited on (0001) sapphire, (001) Si and quartz substrates by ablating a ZnO target. The group III and V elements are introduced into the growth chamber using inner gases. Films are characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning probe microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and electrical measurements. The full width at half maximum of theta rocking curves for epitaxial films is less than 0.5 deg. In textured films, it rises to several degrees. Film surface morphology reveals an island growth pattern, but the size and density of these islands vary with the composition of the reactive gases. The electrical resistivity also changes with the doped elements. The relationship between the doping elements, gas composition, and film properties will be discussed.

  15. Electrochemical modification of properties of ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abe, Koji; Okubo, Takamasa; Ishikawa, Hirohito

    2017-12-01

    The properties of Al-doped ZnO films and Li- and Al-doped ZnO films were modified by electrochemical treatment. A constant current was applied between a ZnO film and a Pt electrode in an electrolyte solution. The sheet resistance of the ZnO film increased and decreased depending on the direction of current flow during the electrochemical treatment. When the ZnO film was used as a cathode (forward biased condition), the sheet resistance of the ZnO film decreased with increasing treatment time. The optical bandgap of the H2-annealed ZnO film also depended on the direction of current flow and increased under the forward biased condition. The electrochemical treatment caused the Burstein-Moss effect.

  16. Structural, linear and nonlinear optical properties of co-doped ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shaaban, E. R.; El-Hagary, M.; Moustafa, El Sayed; Hassan, H. Shokry; Ismail, Yasser A. M.; Emam-Ismail, M.; Ali, A. S.

    2016-01-01

    Different compositions of Co-doped zinc oxide [(Zn(1- x)Co x O) ( x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.10)] thin films were evaporated onto highly clean glass substrates by thermal evaporation technique using a modified source. The structural properties investigated by X-ray diffraction revealed hexagonal wurtzite ZnO-type structure. The crystallite size of the films was found to decrease with increasing Co content. The optical characterization of the films has been carried out using spectral transmittance and reflectance obtained in the wavelength range from 300 to 2500 nm. The refractive index has been found to increase with increasing Co content. It was further found that optical energy gap decreases from 3.28 to 3.03 eV with increasing Co content from x = 0 to x = 0.10, respectively. The dispersion of refractive index has been analyzed in terms of Wemple-DiDomenico (WDD) single-oscillator model. The oscillator parameters, the single-oscillator energy ( E o), the dispersion energy ( E d), and the static refractive index ( n 0), were determined. The nonlinear refractive index of the Zn(1- x)Co x O thin films was calculated and revealed well correlation with the linear refractive index and WDD parameters which in turn depend on the density and molar volume of the system.

  17. Highly conductive and transparent thin ZnO films prepared in situ in a low pressure system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ataev, B. M.; Bagamadova, A. M.; Mamedov, V. V.; Omaev, A. K.; Rabadanov, M. R.

    1999-03-01

    Sucessful preparation of ZnO : M epitaxial thin films (ETF) in situ doped with donor impurity M=Ga, Sn by chemical vapor despsition in a low-pressure system is reported. Highly conductive (up to 10 -4 Ω cm) and transparent ( T>85%) ZnO : M ETF have been successfully produced on single crystal (1012) sapphire substrates. Electrical properties of the films as well as their excition luminescence were studied.

  18. Al-/Ga-Doped ZnO Window Layers for Highly Efficient Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ Thin Film Solar Cells.

    PubMed

    Seo, Se Won; Seo, Jung Woo; Kim, Donghwan; Cheon, Ki-Beom; Lee, Doh-Kwon; Kim, Jin Young

    2018-09-01

    The successful use of Al-/Ga-doped ZnO (AGZO) thin films as a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layer of a Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) thin film solar cell is demonstrated. The AGZO thin films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) sputtering. The structural, crystallographic, electrical, and optical properties of the AGZO thin films were systematically investigated. The photovoltaic properties of CZTSSe thin film solar cells incorporating the AGZO-based TCO layer were also reported. It has been found that the RF power and substrate temperature of the AGZO thin film are important factors determining the electrical, optical, and structural properties. The optimization process involving the RF power and the substrate temperature leads to good electrical and optical transmittance of the AGZO thin films. Finally, the CZTSSe solar cell with the AGZO TCO layer demonstrated a high conversion efficiency of 9.68%, which is higher than that of the conventional AZO counterpart by 12%.

  19. FAST TRACK COMMUNICATION High mobility and low operating voltage ZnGaO and ZnGaLiO transistors with spin-coated Al2O3 as gate dielectric

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xia, D. X.; Xu, J. B.

    2010-11-01

    Spin-coated alumina serving as a gate dielectric in thin film transistors shows interesting dielectric properties for low-voltage applications, despite a moderate capacitance. With Ga singly doped and Ga, Li co-doped ZnO as the active channel layers, typical mobilities of 4.7 cm2 V-1 s-1 and 2.1 cm2 V-1 s-1 are achieved, respectively. At a given gate bias, the operation current is much smaller than the previously reported values in low-voltage thin film transistors, primarily relying on the giant-capacitive dielectric. The reported devices combine advantages of high mobility, low power consumption, low cost and ease of fabrication. In addition to the transparent nature of both the dielectric and semiconducting active channels, the superior electrical properties of the devices may provide a new avenue for future transparent electronics.

  20. GaN and ZnO nanostructures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fündling, Sönke; Sökmen, Ünsal; Behrends, Arne; Al-Suleiman, Mohamed Aid Mansur; Merzsch, Stephan; Li, Shunfeng; Bakin, Andrey; Wehmann, Hergo-Heinrich; Waag, Andreas; Lähnemann, Jonas; Jahn, Uwe; Trampert, Achim; Riechert, Henning

    2010-07-01

    GaN and ZnO are both wide band gap semiconductors with interesting properties concerning optoelectronic and sensor device applications. Due to the lack or the high costs of native substrates, alternatives like sapphire, silicon, or silicon carbide are taken, but the resulting lattice and thermal mismatches lead to increased defect densities which reduce the material quality. In contrast, nanostructures with high aspect ratio have lower defect densities as compared to layers. In this work, we give an overview on our results achieved on both ZnO as well as GaN based nanorods. ZnO nanostructures were grown by a wet chemical approach as well as by VPT on different substrates - even on flexible polymers. To compare the growth results we analyzed the structures by XRD and PL and show possible device applications. The GaN nano- and microstructures were grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy either in a self- organized process or by selective area growth for a better control of shape and material composition. Finally we take a look onto possible device applications, presenting our attempts, e.g., to build LEDs based on GaN nanostructures.

  1. Codoping and Interstitial Deactivation in the Control of Amphoteric Li Dopant in ZnO for the Realization of p-Type TCOs

    PubMed Central

    Catellani, Alessandra; Calzolari, Arrigo

    2017-01-01

    We report on first principle investigations about the electrical character of Li-X codoped ZnO transparent conductive oxides (TCOs). We studied a set of possible X codopants including either unintentional dopants typically present in the system (e.g., H, O) or monovalent acceptor groups, based on nitrogen and halogens (F, Cl, I). The interplay between dopants and structural point defects in the host (such as vacancies) is also taken explicitly into account, demonstrating the crucial effect that zinc and oxygen vacancies have on the final properties of TCOs. Our results show that Li-ZnO has a p-type character, when Li is included as Zn substitutional dopant, but it turns into an n-type when Li is in interstitial sites. The inclusion of X-codopants is considered to deactivate the n-type character of interstitial Li atoms: the total Li-X compensation effect and the corresponding electrical character of the doped compounds selectively depend on the presence of vacancies in the host. We prove that LiF-doped ZnO is the only codoped system that exhibits a p-type character in the presence of Zn vacancies. PMID:28772691

  2. Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of Sputtered-Grown InN Films on ZnO Buffered Silicon, Bulk GaN, Quartz and Sapphire Substrates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bashir, Umar; Hassan, Zainuriah; Ahmed, Naser M.; Afzal, Naveed

    2018-05-01

    Indium nitride (InN) films were grown on Si (111), bulk GaN, quartz and sapphire substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Prior to the film deposition, a zinc oxide (ZnO) buffer layer was deposited on all the substrates. The x-ray diffraction patterns of InN films on ZnO-buffered substrates indicated c-plane-oriented films whereas the Raman spectroscopy results indicated A1 (LO) and E2 (high) modes of InN on all the substrates. The crystalline quality of InN was found to be better on sapphire and quartz than on the other substrates. The surface roughness of InN was studied using an atomic force microscope. The results indicated higher surface roughness of the film on sapphire as compared to the others; however, roughness of the film was lower than 8 nm on all the substrates. The electrical properties indicated higher electron mobility of InN (20.20 cm2/Vs) on bulk GaN than on the other substrates. The optical band gap of InN film was more than 2 eV in all the cases and was attributed to high carrier concentration in the film.

  3. New PLAD apparatus and fabrication of epitaxial films and junctions of functional materials: SiC, GaN, ZnO, diamond and GMR layers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Muto, Hachizo; Kusumori, Takeshi; Nakamura, Toshiyuki; Asano, Takashi; Hori, Takahiro

    2006-04-01

    We have developed a new pulsed laser ablation-deposition (PLAD) apparatus and techniques for fabricating films of high-temperature or functional materials, including two short-wavelength lasers: (a) a YAG 5th harmonic (213 nm) and (b) Raman-shifted lasers containing vacuum ultraviolet light; also involved are (c) a high-temperature heater with a maximum temperature of 1350 °C, (d) dual-target simultaneous ablation mechanics, and (e) hybrid PLAD using a pico-second YAG laser combined with (c) and/or (d). Using the high-T heater, hetero-epitaxial films of 3C-, 2H- and 4H-SiC have been prepared on sapphire-c. In situ p-doping for GaN epitaxial films is achieved by simultaneous ablation of GaN and Mg targets by (d) during film growth. Junctions such as pGaN (Mg-doped)-film/n-SiC(0 0 0 1) substrate and pGaN/n-Si(1 1 1) show good diode characteristics. Epitaxial films with a diamond lattice can be grown on the sapphire-c plane by hybrid PLAD (e) with a high-T heater using a 6H-SiC target. High quality epitaxial films of ZnO are grown by PLAD by introducing a low-temperature self-buffer layer; magnetization of ferromagnetic materials is enforced by overlaying on a ferromagnetic lattice plane of an anti-ferromagnetic material, showing the value of the layer-overlaying method in improving quality. The short-wavelength lasers are useful in reducing surface particles on functional films, including superconductors.

  4. Isoelectronic co-doping

    DOEpatents

    Mascarenhas, Angelo

    2004-11-09

    Isoelectronic co-doping of semiconductor compounds and alloys with deep acceptors and deep donors is used to decrease bandgap, to increase concentration of the dopant constituents in the resulting alloys, and to increase carrier mobilities lifetimes. Group III-V compounds and alloys, such as GaAs and GaP, are isoelectronically co-doped with, for example, N and Bi, to customize solar cells, thermal voltaic cells, light emitting diodes, photodetectors, and lasers on GaP, InP, GaAs, Ge, and Si substrates. Isoelectronically co-doped Group II-VI compounds and alloys are also included.

  5. Effects of co-dopants on the microstructure and electroluminescence of ZnS:Mn thin film phosphors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhai, Qing

    The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of the co-dopants of KCl and Ga2S3 and post-deposition annealing on the microstructure and electroluminescence (EL) properties of ZnS:Mn thin film phosphors. ZnS:Mn thin films are deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering from ZnS and Mn targets onto pre-deposited indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum titanium oxide (ATO) layers on Corning 7059 glass. Argon at 20mTorr is the sputtering ambient. The substrates are held at 180°C during deposition. Co-dopants are thermally evaporated after the ZnS:Mn films, and diffused into the ZnS:Mn films by ex situ annealing between 600°C and 800°C for 5 minutes in a nitrogen ambient. Brightness versus the applied voltage, luminous efficiency, and photoluminescence (PL) are used to characterize the EL devices. The figures of merit are the threshold voltage Vth, at which luminescence is first detected, B40 and eta40, the brightness and efficiency at 40V above the threshold voltage, respectively. In the as-deposited ZnS:Mn phosphor, the microstructure is heavily defected with two different grain morphologies: a roughly 100nm layer of equiaxed fine grains at the insulator/phosphor interface and columnar grains with an average diameter of 89nm in the rest of the film. The EL properties of as-deposited films are poor, with a Vth of 125V, B40 of 48.7nits, and a eta40 of 0.2275lm/W. Annealing at 700°C for 5 minutes raises B40 to 99.6nits and eta40 to 0.4463lm/W, with little change in Vth. In KCl doped ZnS:Mn samples, after 5 minutes of annealing at 700°C, SIMS indicates a uniform distribution of K and a complete diffusion of Cl throughout the phosphor. KCl co-doping enhances grain growth by improving dislocation motion, and the columnar grain size increases from 132nm to 187nm. EL properties are improved, with a B40 of 252nits and eta 40 of 0.9879lm/W. A slight increase in Vth is observed. In ZnS:Mn samples with Ga2S3, the grain growth is less than that in undoped

  6. The investigation of Ga-doped ZnO as an interlayer for ohmic contact to Cd1-xZnxTe films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shen, Yibin; Huang, Jian; Gu, Qingmiao; Meng, Hua; Tang, Ke; Shen, Yue; Zhang, Jijun; Wang, Linjun; Lu, Yicheng

    2017-12-01

    In this work, high quality Cd1-xZnxTe films were prepared on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates by close-spaced sublimation (CSS) method. A low resistivity sputtered Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) film was used as an interlayer between Au electrodes and Cd1-xZnxTe films try to reduce the contact resistance and contribute to bring about a better Ohmic contact. Circular transmission line model (CTLM) was adopted to investigate the effects of GZO intermediate layer on the contact properties of Au/GZO/Cd1-xZnxTe structure. The results show a low contact resistivity of 0.37 Ω cm2 for Au/GZO contacts on Cd1-xZnxTe films. Cd1-xZnxTe film radiation detectors were also fabricated using Au/GZO contacts and an energy resolution of about 28% was obtained from a 60 KeV 241Am γ-ray source for the first time.

  7. Influence of Dopants in ZnO Films on Defects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Cheng-Xiao; Weng, Hui-Min; Zhang, Yang; Ma, Xing-Ping; Ye, Bang-Jiao

    2008-12-01

    The influence of dopants in ZnO films on defects is investigated by slow positron annihilation technique. The results show S that parameters meet SAl > Sun > SAg for Al-doped ZnO films, undoped and Ag-doped ZnO films. Zinc vacancies are found in all ZnO films with different dopants. According to S parameter and the same defect type, it can be induced that the zinc vacancy concentration is the highest in the Al-doped ZnO film, and it is the least in the Ag-doped ZnO film. When Al atoms are doped in the ZnO films grown on silicon substrates, Zn vacancies increase as compared to the undoped and Ag-doped ZnO films. The dopant concentration could determine the position of Fermi level in materials, while defect formation energy of zinc vacancy strongly depends on the position of Fermi level, so its concentration varies with dopant element and dopant concentration.

  8. SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES: A Ga-doped ZnO transparent conduct layer for GaN-based LEDs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhen, Liu; Xiaofeng, Wang; Hua, Yang; Yao, Duan; Yiping, Zeng

    2010-09-01

    An 8 μm thick Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) film grown by metal-source vapor phase epitaxy was deposited on a GaN-based light-emitting diode (LED) to substitute for the conventional ITO as a transparent conduct layer (TCL). Electroluminescence spectra exhibited that the intensity value of LED emission with a GZO TCL is markedly improved by 23.6% as compared to an LED with an ITO TCL at 20 mA. In addition, the forward voltage of the LED with a GZO TCL at 20 mA is higher than that of the conventional LED. To investigate the reason for the increase of the forward voltage, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was performed to analyze the interface properties of the GZO/p-GaN heterojunction. The large valence band offset (2:24 ± 0:21 eV) resulting from the formation of Ga2O3 in the GZO/p-GaN interface was attributed to the increase of the forward voltage.

  9. Properties of Al- and Ga-doped thin zinc oxide films treated with UV laser radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Al-Asedy, Hayder J.; Al-Khafaji, Shuruq A.; Bakhtiar, Hazri; Bidin, Noriah

    2018-03-01

    This paper reports the Nd:YAG laser irradiation treated modified properties of aluminum (Al) and gallium (Ga) co-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) (AGZO) films prepared on Si-substrate via combined sol-gel and spin-coating method. The impact of varying laser energy (150-200 mJ) on the structure, morphology, electrical and optical properties of such AGZO films were determined. Laser-treated samples were characterized using various analytical tools. Present techniques could achieve a high-quality polycrystalline films compared with those produced via conventional high temperature processing. AGZO films irradiated with third harmonics UV radiation (355 nm) from Nd:YAG laser source revealed very low resistivity of 4.02 × 10- 3 Ω cm. The structural properties grain size was calculated firm the X-ray diffraction spectra using the Scherrer equation that increased from 12.7 to 22.5 nm as the annealing laser energy increased from (150-200) mJ. The differences in crystallinity and orientation are explained in terms of the thermal effect caused by laser irradiation. (FESEM) images have been demonstrated that Nd:YAG laser annealing can significantly improve the crystallinity level, densification, and surface flatness of sol-gel derived AGZO thin films that occurred as a result of laser processing. Synthesized AGZO films displayed favorable growth orientation along (101) lattice direction. AGZO films with energy band gap of 3.37-3.41 eV were obtained. Results on the crystallinity, surface morphology, roughness, bonding vibration, absorption, photoluminescence, and resistivity of the laser-irradiated films were analyzed and discussed.

  10. Fabrication of GaN doped ZnO nanocrystallines by laser ablation.

    PubMed

    Gopalakrishnan, N; Shin, B C; Bhuvana, K P; Elanchezhiyan, J; Balasubramanian, T

    2008-08-01

    Here, we present the fabrication of pure and GaN doped ZnO nanocrystallines on Si(111) substrates by KrF excimer laser. The targets for the ablation have been prepared by conventional ceramic method. The fabricated nanocrystallines have been investigated by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and atomic force microscopy. The X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the crystalline size of pure ZnO is 36 nm and it is 41 nm while doped with 0.8 mol% of GaN due to best stoichiometry between Zn and O. Photoluminescence studies reveal that intense deep level emissions have been observed for pure ZnO and it has been suppressed for the GaN doped ZnO structures. The images of atomic force microscope show that the rms surface roughness is 27 nm for pure ZnO and the morphology is improved with decrease in rms roughness, 18 nm with fine crystallines while doped with 1 mol% GaN. The improved structural, optical and morphological properties of ZnO nanocrystalline due to GaN dopant have been discussed in detail.

  11. Synthesis and characterization of ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Anilkumar, T. S., E-mail: anil24march@gmail.com; Girija, M. L., E-mail: girija.ml.grt1@gmail.com; Venkatesh, J., E-mail: phph9502@yahoo.com

    2016-05-06

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) Thin films were deposited on glass substrate using Spin coating method. Zinc acetate dehydrate, Carbinol and Mono-ethanolamine were used as the precursor, solvent and stabilizer respectively to prepare ZnO Thin-films. The molar ratio of Monoethanolamine to Zinc acetate was maintained as approximately 1. The thickness of the films was determined by Interference technique. The optical properties of the films were studied by UV Vis-Spectrophotometer. From transmittance and absorbance curve, the energy band gap of ZnO is found out. Electrical Conductivity measurements of ZnO are carried out by two probe method and Activation energy for the electrical conductivitymore » of ZnO are found out. The crystal structure and orientation of the films were analyzed by XRD. The XRD patterns show that the ZnO films are polycrystalline with wurtzite hexagonal structure.« less

  12. Two-step deposition of Al-doped ZnO on p-GaN to form ohmic contacts.

    PubMed

    Su, Xi; Zhang, Guozhen; Wang, Xiao; Chen, Chao; Wu, Hao; Liu, Chang

    2017-12-01

    Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited directly on p-GaN substrates by using a two-step deposition consisting of polymer assisted deposition (PAD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) methods. Ohmic contacts of the AZO on p-GaN have been formed. The lowest sheet resistance of the two-step prepared AZO films reached to 145 Ω/sq, and the specific contact resistance reduced to 1.47 × 10 -2 Ω·cm 2 . Transmittance of the AZO films remained above 80% in the visible region. The combination of PAD and ALD technique can be used to prepare p-type ohmic contacts for optoelectronics.

  13. Two-step deposition of Al-doped ZnO on p-GaN to form ohmic contacts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Xi; Zhang, Guozhen; Wang, Xiao; Chen, Chao; Wu, Hao; Liu, Chang

    2017-07-01

    Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited directly on p-GaN substrates by using a two-step deposition consisting of polymer assisted deposition (PAD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) methods. Ohmic contacts of the AZO on p-GaN have been formed. The lowest sheet resistance of the two-step prepared AZO films reached to 145 Ω/sq, and the specific contact resistance reduced to 1.47 × 10-2 Ω·cm2. Transmittance of the AZO films remained above 80% in the visible region. The combination of PAD and ALD technique can be used to prepare p-type ohmic contacts for optoelectronics.

  14. Effect of ZnO seed layer on the morphology and optical properties of ZnO nanorods grown on GaN buffer layers

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nandi, R., E-mail: rajunandi@iitb.ac.in; Mohan, S., E-mail: rajunandi@iitb.ac.in; Major, S. S.

    2014-04-24

    ZnO nanorods were grown by chemical bath deposition on sputtered, polycrystalline GaN buffer layers with and without ZnO seed layer. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction show that the ZnO nanorods on GaN buffer layers are not vertically well aligned. Photoluminescence spectrum of ZnO nanorods grown on GaN buffer layer, however exhibits a much stronger near-band-edge emission and negligible defect emission, compared to the nanorods grown on ZnO buffer layer. These features are attributed to gallium incorporation at the ZnO-GaN interface. The introduction of a thin (25 nm) ZnO seed layer on GaN buffer layer significantly improves the morphology andmore » vertical alignment of ZnO-NRs without sacrificing the high optical quality of ZnO nanorods on GaN buffer layer. The presence of a thick (200 nm) ZnO seed layer completely masks the effect of the underlying GaN buffer layer on the morphology and optical properties of nanorods.« less

  15. Aqueous synthesis of zinc oxide films for GaN optoelectronic devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reading, Arthur H.

    GaN-based LEDs have generally made use of ITO transparent contacts as current-spreading layers for uniform current injection. However, the high raw material and processing costs of ITO layers have generated interest in potentially cheaper alternatives. In this work, zinc oxide transparent layers were fabricated by a low-cost, low-temperature aqueous epitaxial growth method at 90°C for use as transparent contacts to GaN LEDs on c-plane sapphire, and on semipolar bulk GaN substrates. Low-voltage operation was achieved for c-plane devices, with voltages below 3.8V for 1mm2 broad-area LEDs at a current density of 30A/cm 2. Blue-green LEDs on 202¯1¯-plane GaN also showed low voltage operation below 3.5V at 30A/cm2. Ohmic contact resistivity of 1:8 x 10-2Ocm2 was measured for films on (202¯1) p-GaN templates. Ga-doped films had electrical conductivities as high as 660S/cm after annealing at 300°C. Optical characterization revealed optical absorption coefficients in the 50--200cm -1 range for visible light, allowing thick films with sheet resistances below 10O/□ to be grown while minimizing absorption of the emitted light. Accurate and reproducible etch-free patterning of the ZnO films was achieved using templated growths with SiOx hard masks. A roughening method is described which was found to increase peak LED efficiencies by 13% on c-plane patterned sapphire (PSS) substrates. In addition, ZnO films were successfully employed as laser-cladding layers for blue (202¯1) lasers, with a threshold current density of 8.8kA/cm 2.

  16. Effects of (Ce, Cu) Co-doping on the Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Aerogels Synthesized in Supercritical Ethanol

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Djouadi, D.; Slimi, O.; Hammiche, L.; Chelouche, A.; Touam, T.

    2018-03-01

    Undoped, Ce-doped, Cu-doped and (Ce,Cu ) co-doped ZnO aerogels were synthesized by sol-gel process in supercritical conditions of ethanol. [Cu]/[Zn] and [Ce]/[Zn] atomic ratios were fixed at 0.02 (2%). The aerogels were investigated without any additional treatments by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible spectrophotometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). XRD results revealed that all the samples are well crystallized in hexagonal wurtzite structure. EDS measurements showed that highly pure aerogels are prepared. SEM analysis indicated that the morphology of the samples is dependent on Cu and Ce dopants. From UV-visible spectroscopy analyses, it was shown that the absorption and the band gap of the aerogels are strongly affected by Ce and Cu dopants. FTIR spectra demonstrated that co-doping induces a shift of Zn-O bond vibration band toward low wavenumbers. The room temperature photoluminescence spectra put into evidence that the visible emission intensity is influenced by Ce and Cu doping. In particular, the co-doping leads to the appearance of a blue emission band at 443 nm.

  17. Structural, optical, and LED characteristics of ZnO and Al doped ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sandeep, K. M.; Bhat, Shreesha; Dharmaprakash, S. M.

    2017-05-01

    ZnO (pristine) and Al doped ZnO (AZO) films were prepared using sol-gel spin coating method. The XRD analysis showed the enhanced compressive stress in AZO film. The presence of extended states below the conduction band edge in AZO accounts for the redshift in optical bandgap. The PL spectra of AZO showed significant blue emission due to the carrier recombination from defect states. The TRPL curves showed the dominant DAP recombination in ZnO film, whereas defect related recombination in Al doped ZnO film. Color parameters viz: the dominant wavelength, color coordinates (x,y), color purity, luminous efficiency and correlated color temperature (CCT) of ZnO and AZO films are calculated using 1931 (CIE) diagram. Further, a strong blue emission with color purity more than 96% is observed in both the films. The enhanced blue emission in AZO significantly increased the luminous efficiency (22.8%) compared to ZnO film (10.8%). The prepared films may be used as blue phosphors in white light generation.

  18. Design of Shallow Acceptors in GaN through Zinc-Magnium Codoping: First-Principles Calculation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Zhiqiang; Melton, Andrew G.; Yi, Xiaoyan; Wang, Jianwei; Kucukgok, Bahadir; Kang, Jun; Lu, Na; Wang, Junxi; Li, Jinmin; Ferguson, Ian

    2013-04-01

    In this work, we propose a novel approach to reduce the ionization energy of acceptors in GaN through Zn-Mg codoping. The characteristics of the defect states and the valence-band maximum (VBM) were investigated via first-principles calculation. Our results indicated that the original VBM of the host GaN could be altered by Zn-Mg codoping, thus improving the p-type dopability. We show that the calculated ionization energy ɛ(0/-) of the Zn-Mg acceptor is only 117 meV, which is about 90 meV shallower than that of the isolated Mg acceptor.

  19. Nanoporous structures on ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gür, Emre; Kılıç, Bayram; Coşkun, C.; Tüzemen, S.; Bayrakçeken, Fatma

    2010-01-01

    Porous structures were formed on ZnO thin films which were grown by an electrochemical deposition (ECD) method. The growth processes were carried out in a solution of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) zinc perchlorate, Zn(ClO 4) 2, at 120 ∘C on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. Optical and structural characterizations of electrochemically grown ZnO thin films have shown that the films possess high (0002) c-axis orientation, high nucleation, high intensity and low FWHM of UV emission at the band edge region and a sharp UV absorption edge. Nanoporous structures were formed via self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of hexanethiol (C 6SH) and dodecanethiol (C 12SH). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) measurements showed that while a nanoporous structure (pore radius 20 nm) is formed on the ZnO thin films by hexanathiol solution, a macroporous structure (pore radius 360 nm) is formed by dodecanethiol solution. No significant variation is observed in X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements on the ZnO thin films after pore formation. However, photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed that green emission is observed as the dominant emission for the macroporous structures, while no variation is observed for the thin film nanoporous ZnO sample.

  20. Colossal permittivity and the polarization mechanism of (Mg, Mn) co-doped LaGaO3 ceramics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Tingting; Liu, Zhifu; Zhang, Faqiang; Li, Yongxiang

    2018-03-01

    Mg and Mn co-doped LaGa0.7-xMgxMn0.3O3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) ceramics were prepared by a solid-state reaction method. The electrical properties of the LaGa0.7-xMgxMn0.3O3 ceramics were studied in detail by dielectric spectra, impedance spectra, and I-V characteristic analysis. Colossal permittivity up to 104 could be obtained across the frequency range up to 104 Hz. The impedance analysis of the co-doped LaGaO3 ceramics indicated that the Mott's variable range hopping (VRH) polarization should be the main origin of colossal permittivity. Mg and Mn co-doping suppressed the formation of Mn3+ and enhanced the VRH polarization, resulting in increased permittivity. Partial localization of electrons by Mg reduced the long-range electron hopping and led to the decrease in dielectric loss.

  1. Reactive codoping of GaAlInP compound semiconductors

    DOEpatents

    Hanna, Mark Cooper [Boulder, CO; Reedy, Robert [Golden, CO

    2008-02-12

    A GaAlInP compound semiconductor and a method of producing a GaAlInP compound semiconductor are provided. The apparatus and method comprises a GaAs crystal substrate in a metal organic vapor deposition reactor. Al, Ga, In vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing organometallic compounds. P vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing phospine gas, group II vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing an organometallic group IIA or IIB compound. Group VIB vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing a gaseous compound of group VIB. The Al, Ga, In, P, group II, and group VIB vapors grow a GaAlInP crystal doped with group IIA or IIB and group VIB elements on the substrate wherein the group IIA or IIB and a group VIB vapors produced a codoped GaAlInP compound semiconductor with a group IIA or IIB element serving as a p-type dopant having low group II atomic diffusion.

  2. Mg,Ce co-doped Lu2Gd1(Ga,Al)5O12 by micro-pulling down method and their luminescence properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kamada, Kei; Yamaguchi, Hiroaki; Yoshino, Masao; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Yokota, Yuui; Ohashi, Yuji; Pejchal, Jan; Nikl, Martin; Yoshikawa, Akira

    2018-04-01

    The effects of Mg co-doping on the scintillation properties of Ce:Lu2Gd1(Ga,Al)5O12 (LGGAG) single crystals with different Ga/Al ratios were investigated. Mg co-doped and non co-doped Ce:LGGAG single crystals were grown by the micro-pulling down (µ-PD) method and then cut, polished and annealed for each measurement. Absorption spectra, radioluminescence (RL) spectra, pulse height spectra, and scintillation decay were measured to reveal the effect of Mg co-doping. Ce4+ charge transfer (CT) absorption band peaking at ∼260 nm was observed in Mg co-doped samples, which is in good agreement with previous reports for the Ce4+ CT absorption band in other garnet-based crystals. The scintillation decay time tended to be accelerated and the light yield tended to be decreased by Mg co-doping at higher Ga concentrations.

  3. Characteristics of Mg-doped and In-Mg co-doped p-type GaN epitaxial layers grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chung, S. J.; Senthil Kumar, M.; Lee, Y. S.; Suh, E.-K.; An, M. H.

    2010-05-01

    Mg-doped and In-Mg co-doped p-type GaN epilayers were grown using the metal organic chemical vapour deposition technique. The effect of In co-doping on the physical properties of p-GaN layer was examined by high resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Hall effect, photoluminescence (PL) and persistent photoconductivity (PPC) at room temperature. An improved crystalline quality and a reduction in threading dislocation density are evidenced upon In doping in p-GaN from HRXRD and TEM images. Hole conductivity, mobility and carrier density also significantly improved by In co-doping. PL studies of the In-Mg co-doped sample revealed that the peak position is blue shifted to 3.2 eV from 2.95 eV of conventional p-GaN and the PL intensity is increased by about 25%. In addition, In co-doping significantly reduced the PPC effect in p-type GaN layers. The improved electrical and optical properties are believed to be associated with the active participation of isolated Mg impurities.

  4. Enhancement of p-type conductivity by modifying the internal electric field in Mg- and Si-δ-codoped AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN superlattices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Jinchai; Yang, Weihuang; Li, Shuping; Chen, Hangyang; Liu, Dayi; Kang, Junyong

    2009-10-01

    The internal electric field is modified by using Mg- and Si-δ-codoped AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN superlattices (SLs). The first-principles simulation results show that the internal electric field in SL has been significantly intensified due to the charge transferring from Si-doped interface to Mg-doped interface. Accordingly, the Mg- and Si-δ-codoped p-type Al0.2Ga0.8N/GaN SLs are grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy and higher hole concentration as much as twice of that in modulation-doped SL has been achieved, as determined by Hall effect measurements. Furthermore, by applying Mg- and Si-δ-codoped AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN SLs with high Al content as the p-type layers, we have fabricated deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes with superior current-voltage characteristics by lowering Mg-acceptor activation energy.

  5. InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diodes using Al-doped ZnO grown by atomic layer deposition as a current spreading layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kong, Bo Hyun; Cho, Hyung Koun; Kim, Mi Yang; Choi, Rak Jun; Kim, Bae Kyun

    2011-07-01

    For the fabrication of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well-based blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) showing large area emission, transparent Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films grown by atomic layer deposition at relatively low temperatures were introduced as current spreading layers. These AZO films with an Al content of 3 at% showed a low electrical resistivity of <10 -3-10 -4 Ω cm, a high carrier concentration of >10 20 cm -3, and an excellent optical transmittance of ˜85%, in spite of the low growth temperature. The deposition of the AZO film induced an intense blue emission from the whole surface of the p-GaN and weak ultraviolet emission from the n-AZO and p-GaN junction. At an injection current of 50 mA, the output powers of the blue LEDs were 1760 and 1440 mcd for the samples with AZO thicknesses of 100 and 300 nm, respectively.

  6. Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy of ZnO on in-situ grown GaN/4H-SiC buffer layers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adolph, David; Tingberg, Tobias; Andersson, Thorvald; Ive, Tommy

    2015-04-01

    Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was used to grow ZnO (0001) layers on GaN(0001)/4H-SiC buffer layers deposited in the same growth chamber equipped with both N- and O-plasma sources. The GaN buffer layers were grown immediately before initiating the growth of ZnO. Using a substrate temperature of 440°C-445°C and an O2 flow rate of 2.0-2.5 sccm, we obtained ZnO layers with smooth surfaces having a root-mean-square roughness of 0.3 nm and a peak-to-valley distance of 3 nm shown by AFM. The FWHM for X-ray rocking curves recorded across the ZnO(0002) and ZnO(10bar 15) reflections were 200 and 950 arcsec, respectively. These values showed that the mosaicity (tilt and twist) of the ZnO film was comparable to corresponding values of the underlying GaN buffer. It was found that a substrate temperature > 450°C and a high Zn-flux always resulted in a rough ZnO surface morphology. Reciprocal space maps showed that the in-plane relaxation of the GaN and ZnO layers was 82.3% and 73.0%, respectively and the relaxation occurred abruptly during the growth. Room-temperature Hall-effect measurements showed that the layers were intrinsically n-type with an electron concentration of 1019 cm-3 and a Hall mobility of 50 cm2·V-1·s-1.

  7. Structure of (Ga2O3)2(ZnO)13 and a unified description of the homologous series (Ga2O3)2(ZnO)(2n + 1).

    PubMed

    Michiue, Yuichi; Kimizuka, Noboru; Kanke, Yasushi; Mori, Takao

    2012-06-01

    The structure of (Ga(2)O(3))(2)(ZnO)(13) has been determined by a single-crystal X-ray diffraction technique. In the monoclinic structure of the space group C2/m with cell parameters a = 19.66 (4), b = 3.2487 (5), c = 27.31 (2) Å, and β = 105.9 (1)°, a unit cell is constructed by combining the halves of the unit cell of Ga(2)O(3)(ZnO)(6) and Ga(2)O(3)(ZnO)(7) in the homologous series Ga(2)O(3)(ZnO)(m). The homologous series (Ga(2)O(3))(2)(ZnO)(2n + 1) is derived and a unified description for structures in the series is presented using the (3+1)-dimensional superspace formalism. The phases are treated as compositely modulated structures consisting of two subsystems. One is constructed by metal ions and another is by O ions. In the (3 + 1)-dimensional model, displacive modulations of ions are described by the asymmetric zigzag function with large amplitudes, which was replaced by a combination of the sawtooth function in refinements. Similarities and differences between the two homologous series (Ga(2)O(3))(2)(ZnO)(2n + 1) and Ga(2)O(3)(ZnO)(m) are clarified in (3 + 1)-dimensional superspace. The validity of the (3 + 1)-dimensional model is confirmed by the refinements of (Ga(2)O(3))(2)(ZnO)(13), while a few complex phenomena in the real structure are taken into account by modifying the model.

  8. Significant mobility enhancement in extremely thin highly doped ZnO films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Look, David C., E-mail: david.look@wright.edu; Wyle Laboratories, Inc., 2601 Mission Point Blvd., Dayton, Ohio 45431; Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate, 2241 Avionics Circle, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433

    2015-04-13

    Highly Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films of thicknesses d = 5, 25, 50, and 300 nm, grown on 160-nm ZnO buffer layers by molecular beam epitaxy, had 294-K Hall-effect mobilities μ{sub H} of 64.1, 43.4, 37.0, and 34.2 cm{sup 2}/V-s, respectively. This extremely unusual ordering of μ{sub H} vs d is explained by the existence of a very high-mobility Debye tail in the ZnO, arising from the large Fermi-level mismatch between the GZO and the ZnO. Scattering theory in conjunction with Poisson analysis predicts a Debye-tail mobility of 206 cm{sup 2}/V-s at the interface (z = d), falling to 58 cm{sup 2}/V-s at z = d + 2 nm. Excellent fits to μ{sub H}more » vs d and sheet concentration n{sub s} vs d are obtained with no adjustable parameters.« less

  9. Colossal Dielectric Behavior of Ga+Nb Co-Doped Rutile TiO2.

    PubMed

    Dong, Wen; Hu, Wanbiao; Berlie, Adam; Lau, Kenny; Chen, Hua; Withers, Ray L; Liu, Yun

    2015-11-18

    Stimulated by the excellent colossal permittivity (CP) behavior achieved in In+Nb co-doped rutile TiO2, in this work we investigate the CP behavior of Ga and Nb co-doped rutile TiO2, i.e., (Ga(0.5)Nb(0.5))(x)Ti(1-x)O2, where Ga(3+) is from the same group as In(3+) but with a much smaller ionic radius. Colossal permittivity of up to 10(4)-10(5) with an acceptably low dielectric loss (tan δ = 0.05-0.1) over broad frequency/temperature ranges is obtained at x = 0.5% after systematic synthesis optimizations. Systematic structural, defect, and dielectric characterizations suggest that multiple polarization mechanisms exist in this system: defect dipoles at low temperature (∼10-40 K), polaronlike electron hopping/transport at higher temperatures, and a surface barrier layer capacitor effect. Together these mechanisms contribute to the overall dielectric properties, especially apparent observed CP. We believe that this work provides comprehensive guidance for the design of new CP materials.

  10. Enhanced photoluminescence properties of Al doped ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, H. X.; Ding, J. J.

    2018-01-01

    Al doped ZnO films are fabricated by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. In general, visible emission is related to various defects in ZnO films. However, too much defects will cause light emission quench. So it is still a controversial issue to control appropriate defect concentrations. In this paper, based on our previous results, appropriate Al doping concentration is chosen to introduce more both interstitial Zn and O vacancy defects, which is responsible for main visible emission of ZnO films. A strong emission band located at 405 nm and a long tail peak is observed in the samples. As Al is doped in ZnO films, the intensity of emission peaks increases. Zn interstitial might increase with the increasing Al3+ substitute because ZnO was a self-assembled oxide compound. So Zn interstitial defect concentration in Al doped ZnO films will increase greatly, which results in the intensity of emission peaks increases.

  11. Improved ohmic contact of Ga-Doped ZnO to p-GaN by using copper sulfide intermediate layers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gu, Wen; Xu, Tao; Zhang, Jianhua

    2013-11-01

    Copper sulfide (CuS) was used as the intermediate layer to build ohmic contact of Ga-Doped ZnO (GZO) transparent conduction layer (TCL) to p-GaN. The CuS and GZO layers were prepared by thermal evaporation and RF magnetron sputtering, respectively. Although the GZO-only contacts to p-GaN exhibit nonlinear behavior, ohmic contact with a specific contact resistance of 1.6 × 10-2 Ω cm2 has been realized by inserting 3 nm CuS layer between GZO and p-GaN. The optical transmittance of CuS/GZO film was measured to be higher than 80% in the range of 450-600 nm wavelength. The possible mechanism for the ohmic contact behavior can be attributed to the increased hole concentration of p-GaN surface induced by CuS films after annealing. The forward voltage of LEDs with CuS/GZO TCL has been reduced by 1.7 V at 20 mA and the output power has been increased by 29.6% at 100 mA compared with LEDs without CuS interlayer. These results indicated that using CuS intermediate layer could be a potential ohmic contact method to realize high-efficiency LEDs.

  12. Multifunctional transparent ZnO nanorod films.

    PubMed

    Kwak, Geunjae; Jung, Sungmook; Yong, Kijung

    2011-03-18

    Transparent ZnO nanorod (NR) films that exhibit extreme wetting states (either superhydrophilicity or superhydrophobicity through surface chemical modification), high transmittance, UV protection and antireflection have been prepared via the facile ammonia hydrothermal method. The periodic 1D ZnO NR arrays showed extreme wetting states as well as antireflection properties due to their unique surface structure and prevented the UVA region from penetrating the substrate due to the unique material property of ZnO. Because of the simple, time-efficient and low temperature preparation process, ZnO NR films with useful functionalities are promising for fabrication of highly light transmissive, antireflective, UV protective, antifogging and self-cleaning optical materials to be used for optical devices and photovoltaic energy devices.

  13. Defect-induced magnetic order in pure ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khalid, M.; Ziese, M.; Setzer, A.; Esquinazi, P.; Lorenz, M.; Hochmuth, H.; Grundmann, M.; Spemann, D.; Butz, T.; Brauer, G.; Anwand, W.; Fischer, G.; Adeagbo, W. A.; Hergert, W.; Ernst, A.

    2009-07-01

    We have investigated the magnetic properties of pure ZnO thin films grown under N2 pressure on a -, c -, and r -plane Al2O3 substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. The substrate temperature and the N2 pressure were varied from room temperature to 570°C and from 0.007 to 1.0 mbar, respectively. The magnetic properties of bare substrates and ZnO films were investigated by SQUID magnetometry. ZnO films grown on c - and a -plane Al2O3 substrates did not show significant ferromagnetism. However, ZnO films grown on r -plane Al2O3 showed reproducible ferromagnetism at 300 K when grown at 300-400°C and 0.1-1.0 mbar N2 pressure. Positron annihilation spectroscopy measurements as well as density-functional theory calculations suggest that the ferromagnetism in ZnO films is related to Zn vacancies.

  14. Low operation voltage of GaN-based LEDs with Al-doped ZnO upper contact directly on p-type GaN without insert layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, P. H.; Chen, Yu An; Chang, L. C.; Lai, W. C.; Kuo, Cheng Huang

    2015-07-01

    Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film was evaporated on double-side polished sapphire, p-GaN layers, n+-InGaN-GaN short-period superlattice (SPS) structures, and GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by e-beam. The AZO film on the p-GaN layer after thermal annealing exhibited an extremely high transparency (98% at 450 nm) and a small specific contact resistance of 2.19 × 10-2 Ω cm2, which was almost the same as that of as-deposited AZO on n+-SPS structure. With 20 mA injection current, the forward voltages were 3.30 and 3.27 V, whereas the output powers were 4.32 and 4.07 mW for the LED with AZO on insert n+-SPS upper contact and the LED with AZO on p-GaN upper contact (without insert layer), respectively. The small specific contact resistance and low operation voltage of LED with AZO on p-GaN upper contact was achieved by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process.

  15. Nanostructured ZnO Films for Room Temperature Ammonia Sensing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dhivya Ponnusamy; Sridharan Madanagurusamy

    2014-09-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have been deposited by a reactive dc magnetron sputtering technique onto a thoroughly cleaned glass substrate at room temperature. X-ray diffraction revealed that the deposited film was polycrystalline in nature. The field emission scanning electron micrograph (FE-SEM) showed the uniform formation of a rugby ball-shaped ZnO nanostructure. Energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) confirmed that the film was stoichiometric and the direct band gap of the film, determined using UV-Vis spectroscopy, was 3.29 eV. The ZnO nanostructured film exhibited better sensing towards ammonia (NH3) at room temperature (˜30°C). The fabricated ZnO film based sensor was capable of detecting NH3 at as low as 5 ppm, and its parameters, such as response, selectivity, stability, and response/recovery time, were also investigated.

  16. Enhanced ultraviolet photo-response in Dy doped ZnO thin film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, Pawan; Singh, Ranveer; Pandey, Praveen C.

    2018-02-01

    In the present work, a Dy doped ZnO thin film deposited by the spin coating method has been studied for its potential application in a ZnO based UV detector. The investigations on the structural property and surface morphology of the thin film ensure that the prepared samples are crystalline and exhibit a hexagonal crystal structure of ZnO. A small change in crystallite size has been observed due to Dy doping in ZnO. AFM analysis ascertains the grain growth and smooth surface of the thin films. The Dy doped ZnO thin film exhibits a significant enhancement in UV region absorption as compared to the pure ZnO thin film, which suggests that Dy doped ZnO can be used as a UV detector. Under UV irradiation of wavelength 325 nm, the photocurrent value of Dy doped ZnO is 105.54 μA at 4.5 V, which is 31 times greater than that of the un-doped ZnO thin film (3.39 μA). The calculated value of responsivity is found to increase significantly due to the incorporation of Dy in the ZnO lattice. The observed higher value of photocurrent and responsivity could be attributed to the substitution of Dy in the ZnO lattice, which enhances the conductivity, electron mobility, and defects in ZnO and benefits the UV sensing property.

  17. Variable range hopping in ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ali, Nasir; Ghosh, Subhasis

    2018-04-01

    We report the variable range hopping in ZnO films grown by RF magnetron sputtering in different argon and oxygen partial pressure. It has been found that Mott variable range hopping dominant over Efros variable range hopping in all ZnO films. It also has been found that hopping distance and energy increases with increasing oxygen partial pressure.

  18. A hetero-homogeneous investigation of chemical bath deposited Ga-doped ZnO nanorods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rakhsha, Amir Hosein; Abdizadeh, Hossein; Pourshaban, Erfan; Golobostanfard, Mohammad Reza

    2018-01-01

    One-dimensional nanostructures of zinc oxide (ZnO) have been in the center of attention, mostly for electronic applications due to their distinctive properties such as high electron mobility (100 cm2V-1s-1) and crystallinity. Thanks to its high density of vacancies and interstitial sites, wurtzite lattice of ZnO is a suitable host for gallium (Ga) as a dopant element. Herein, ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs) are synthesized by a low-temperature chemical bath deposition (CBD) method with various concentrations of gallium nitrate hydrate as a dopant precursor. Structural and morphological analyses confirm that optimum properties of gallium-doped ZnO (GZO) are obtained at 1% (Ga to Zn molar ratio). Owing to the replacement of smaller Ga3+ ions with Zn2+ ions in the GZO structure, a slight shift of (002) peak to higher angles could be observed in XRD pattern of GZO NRAs. The scanning electron microscope images demonstrate a proliferation in the ZnO NRAs length from 650 nm for undoped ZnO (UZO) to 1200 nm for GZO-1%. However, increasing the dopant concentration above 2.5% results in formation of homogeneous zinc gallium oxide in the bulk solution, which is a sign of inefficient process of doping in GZO NRAs. Furthermore, photoluminescence spectroscopy is used to characterize the band-gap variation of the samples, which demonstrates a small red-shift in the UV emission peak and a decrease in visible emission peak intensity with introducing Ga in ZnO lattice. Lower resistivity for GZO-1% (1.1 MΩ) sample compared to UZO (1.4 MΩ) is recorded, which is compelling evidence for the presence of Ga3+ in ZnO lattice. The results suggest that incorporating Ga into ZnO lattice using CBD method is an easy and effective technique to improve the electrical properties of ZnO NRAs that is an essential factor for a broad range of devices.

  19. Shallow doping effect of ZnO treatment using atomic layer deposition process on p-type In0.53Ga0.47As

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Changmin; An, Youngseo; Choi, Sungho; Kim, Hyoungsub

    2018-06-01

    The number of atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycles for ZnO treatment was changed to study its merits and demerits as a passivation layer prior to the deposition of a HfO2 film on a p-type In0.53Ga0.47As substrate. Even a few cycles of ZnO ALD treatment was effective in improving the capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics by suppressing strong Fermi-level pinning, which occurred because of a high interface state density near the lower half of the In0.53Ga0.47As band gap. Increases in the number of ZnO ALD cycles induced an increase in the minimum capacitance and response of minority carriers at higher frequencies in the inversion region of the C–V characteristics. According to various temperature- and frequency-dependent C–V analyses, these changes were explained by the shallow p-type doping effect of Zn atoms in the In0.53Ga0.47As substrate. As a disadvantage, ZnO ALD treatment caused a slight increase in the dielectric leakage current.

  20. UV-Enhanced Ethanol Sensing Properties of RF Magnetron-Sputtered ZnO Film.

    PubMed

    Huang, Jinyu; Du, Yu; Wang, Quan; Zhang, Hao; Geng, Youfu; Li, Xuejin; Tian, Xiaoqing

    2017-12-26

    ZnO film was deposited by the magnetron sputtering method. The thickness of ZnO film is approximately 2 μm. The influence of UV light illumination on C₂H₅OH sensing properties of ZnO film was investigated. Gas sensing results revealed that the UV-illuminated ZnO film displays excellent C₂H₅OH characteristics in terms of high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, rapid response/recovery, and low detection limit down to 0.1 ppm. The excellent sensing performance of the sensor with UV activation could be attributed to the photocatalytic oxidation of ethanol on the surface of the ZnO film, the planar film structure with high utilizing efficiency of UV light, high electron mobility, and a good surface/volume ratio of of ZnO film with a relatively rough and porous surface.

  1. Electrically excited hot-electron dominated fluorescent emitters using individual Ga-doped ZnO microwires via metal quasiparticle film decoration.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yang; Jiang, Mingming; Zhang, Zhenzhong; Li, Binghui; Zhao, Haifeng; Shan, Chongxin; Shen, Dezhen

    2018-03-28

    The generation of hot electrons from metal nanostructures through plasmon decay provided a direct interfacial charge transfer mechanism, which no longer suffers from the barrier height restrictions observed for metal/semiconductor interfaces. Metal plasmon-mediated energy conversion with higher efficiency has been proposed as a promising alternative to construct novel optoelectronic devices, such as photodetectors, photovoltaic and photocatalytic devices, etc. However, the realization of the electrically-driven generation of hot electrons, and the application in light-emitting devices remain big challenges. Here, hybrid architectures comprising individual Ga-doped ZnO (ZnO:Ga) microwires via metal quasiparticle film decoration were fabricated. The hottest spots could be formed towards the center of the wires, and the quasiparticle films were converted into physically isolated nanoparticles by applying a bias onto the wires. Thus, the hot electrons became spatially localized towards the hottest regions, leading to a release of energy in the form of emitting photons. By adjusting the sputtering times and appropriate alloys, such as Au and Ag, wavelength-tunable emissions could be achieved. To exploit the EL emission characteristics, metal plasmons could be used as active elements to mediate the generation of hot electrons from metal nanostructures, which are located in the light-emitting regions, followed by injection into ZnO:Ga microwire-channels; thus, the production of plasmon decay-induced hot-electrons could function as an efficient approach to dominate emission wavelengths. Therefore, by introducing metal nanostructure decoration, individual ZnO:Ga microwires can be used to construct wavelength-tunable fluorescent emitters. The hybrid architectures of metal-ZnO micro/nanostructures offer a fantastic candidate to broaden the potential applications of semiconducting optoelectronic devices, such as photovoltaic devices, photodetectors, optoelectronic sensors, etc.

  2. Linear facing target sputtering of the epitaxial Ga-doped ZnO transparent contact layer on GaN-based light-emitting diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shin, Hyun-Su; Lee, Ju-Hyun; Kwak, Joon-Seop; Lee, Hyun Hwi; Kim, Han-Ki

    2013-10-01

    In this study, we reported on the plasma damage-free sputtering of epitaxial Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films on the p-GaN layer for use as a transparent contact layer (TCL) for GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using linear facing target sputtering (LFTS). Effective confinement of high-density plasma between faced GZO targets and the substrate position located outside of the plasma region led to the deposition of the epitaxial GZO TCL with a low sheet resistance of 25.7 Ω/s and a high transmittance of 84.6% on a p-GaN layer without severe plasma damage, which was found using the conventional dc sputtering process. The low turn-on voltage of the GaN-based LEDs with an LFTS-grown GZO TCL layer that was grown at a longer target-to-substrate distance (TSD) indicates that the plasma damage of the GaN-LED could be effectively reduced by adjusting the TSD during the LFTS process.

  3. Upconversion luminescence from Er-N codoped of ZnO nanowires prepared by ion implantation method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhong, Kun; Xu, Jie; Su, Jing; Chen, Yu lin

    2011-02-01

    Nitrogen and erbium co-doped of ZnO nanowires (NWs) are fabricated by ion implantation and subsequent annealing in air. The incorporation of Er3+ and N+ ions is verified by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Raman spectra. The samples exhibit upconversion photoluminescence around ∼550 nm and ∼660 nm under an excitation at 980 nm. It is discovered that the N-doped can drastically increase the upconversion photoluminescence intensity by modifying the local structure around Er3+ in ZnO matrix. The enhancement of the PL intensity by the N-doped is caused by the formation of ErO6-xNx octahedron complexes. With the increase of the annealing temperature (Ta), the Er3+ ions diffuse towards the surface of the NWs, which benefits the red emission and evokes the variation of intensity ratio owing to the existence of some organic groups.

  4. Impact of nanostructured thin ZnO film in ultraviolet protection.

    PubMed

    Sasani Ghamsari, Morteza; Alamdari, Sanaz; Han, Wooje; Park, Hyung-Ho

    2017-01-01

    Nanoscale ZnO is one of the best choices for ultraviolet (UV) protection, not only because of its antimicrobial properties but also due to its potential application for UV preservation. However, the behavior of nanostructured thin ZnO films and long-term effects of UV-radiation exposure have not been studied yet. In this study, we investigated the UV-protection ability of sol gel-derived thin ZnO films after different exposure times. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and UV-visible optical spectroscopy were carried out to study the structure and optical properties of the ZnO films as a function of the UV-irradiation time. The results obtained showed that the prepared thin ZnO films were somewhat transparent under the visible wavelength region and protective against UV radiation. The UV-protection factor was 50+ for the prepared samples, indicating that they were excellent UV protectors. The deposited thin ZnO films demonstrated promising antibacterial potential and significant light absorbance in the UV range. The experimental results suggest that the synthesized samples have potential for applications in the health care field.

  5. High-Hall-Mobility Al-Doped ZnO Films Having Textured Polycrystalline Structure with a Well-Defined (0001) Orientation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nomoto, Junichi; Makino, Hisao; Yamamoto, Tetsuya

    2016-06-01

    Five hundred-nanometer-thick ZnO-based textured polycrystalline films consisting of 490-nm-thick Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films deposited on 10-nm-thick Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films exhibited a high Hall mobility ( μ H) of 50.1 cm2/Vs with a carrier concentration ( N) of 2.55 × 1020 cm-3. Firstly, the GZO films were prepared on glass substrates by ion plating with dc arc discharge, and the AZO films were then deposited on the GZO films by direct current magnetron sputtering (DC-MS). The GZO interface layers with a preferential c-axis orientation play a critical role in producing AZO films with texture development of a well-defined (0001) orientation, whereas 500-nm-thick AZO films deposited by only DC-MS showed a mixture of the c-plane and the other plane orientation, to exhibit a μ H of 38.7 cm2/Vs with an N of 2.22 × 1020 cm-3.

  6. High performance of Ga-doped ZnO transparent conductive layers using MOCVD for GaN LED applications.

    PubMed

    Horng, Ray-Hua; Shen, Kun-Ching; Yin, Chen-Yang; Huang, Chiung-Yi; Wuu, Dong-Sing

    2013-06-17

    High performance of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) prepared using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was employed in GaN blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as transparent conductive layers (TCL). By the post-annealing process, the annealed 800°C GZO films exhibited a high transparency above 97% at wavelength of 450 nm. The contact resistance of GZO decreased with the annealing temperature increasing. It was attributed to the improvement of the GZO crystal quality, leading to an increase in electron concentration. It was also found that some Zn atom caused from the decomposition process diffused into the p-GaN surface of LED, which generated a stronger tunneling effect at the GZO/p-GaN interface and promoted the formation of ohmic contact. Moreover, contrast to the ITO-LED, a high light extraction efficiency of 77% was achieved in the GZO-LED at injection current of 20 mA. At 350 mA injection current, the output power of 256.51 mW of GZO-LEDs, corresponding to a 21.5% enhancement as compared to ITO-LEDs was obtained; results are promising for the development of GZO using the MOCVD technique for GaN LED applications.

  7. Controlled Growth of Parallel Oriented ZnO Nanostructural Arrays on Ga2O3 Nanowires

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-11-01

    Controlled Growth of Parallel Oriented ZnO Nanostructural Arrays on Ga2O3 Nanowires Lena Mazeina,* Yoosuf N. Picard, and Sharka M. Prokes Electronics...Manuscript ReceiVed NoVember 6, 2008 ABSTRACT: Novel hierarchical ZnO- Ga2O3 nanostructures were fabricated via a two stage growth process. Nanowires of Ga2O3 ...nanobrushes (NBs) with Ga2O3 as the core and ZnO as the branches self-assembling symmetrically in six equiangular directions around the core

  8. Effects of the carrier concentration on polarity determination in Ga-doped ZnO films by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Huaping; Makino, Hisao; Kobata, Masaaki; Nomoto, Junichi; Kobayashi, Keisuke; Yamamoto, Tetsuya

    2018-03-01

    Core level (CL) and valence band (VB) spectra of heavily Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films with carrier concentrations (Ne) ranging from 1.8 × 1020 to 1.0 × 1021 cm-3 were measured by high-resolution Al Kα (hν = 1486.6 eV) x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Cr Kα (hν = 5414.7 eV) hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES). The CL spectra of the GZO films measured by XPS had little dependence on Ne. In contrast, clear differences in asymmetric broadening were observed in the HAXPES spectra owing to the large probing depth. The asymmetry in the Zn 2p3/2 and O 1s HAXPES spectra is mainly attributed to the energy loss of the conduction electron plasmon caused by the high Ne of the GZO films. Similar asymmetry was also observed in the VB spectra of these GZO films. It was found that such asymmetry plays a crucial role in the determination of crystal polarity. With increasing Ne, the intensity of the sub-peak at a binding energy Eb of about 5 eV in the VB spectrum decreased and the sub-peak became indistinguishable. We clarified the limitation of the criterion using the sub-peak and proposed an alternative method for polarity determination.

  9. Synthesis of nanocrystalline ZnO thin films by electron beam evaporation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kondkar, V.; Rukade, D.; Bhattacharyya, V.

    2018-05-01

    Nanocrystalline ZnO thin films have potential for applications in variety of optoelectronic devices. In the present study, nanocrystalline thin films of ZnO are grown on fused silica substrate using electron beam (e-beam) evaporation technique. Phase identification is carried out using Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopic analysis is carried out to calculate energy band gap of the ZnO film. Surface morphology of the film is investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Highly quality nanocrystalline thin films of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO are synthesized using e-beam evaporation technique.

  10. Impact of nanostructured thin ZnO film in ultraviolet protection

    PubMed Central

    Sasani Ghamsari, Morteza; Alamdari, Sanaz; Han, Wooje; Park, Hyung-Ho

    2017-01-01

    Nanoscale ZnO is one of the best choices for ultraviolet (UV) protection, not only because of its antimicrobial properties but also due to its potential application for UV preservation. However, the behavior of nanostructured thin ZnO films and long-term effects of UV-radiation exposure have not been studied yet. In this study, we investigated the UV-protection ability of sol gel-derived thin ZnO films after different exposure times. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and UV-visible optical spectroscopy were carried out to study the structure and optical properties of the ZnO films as a function of the UV-irradiation time. The results obtained showed that the prepared thin ZnO films were somewhat transparent under the visible wavelength region and protective against UV radiation. The UV-protection factor was 50+ for the prepared samples, indicating that they were excellent UV protectors. The deposited thin ZnO films demonstrated promising antibacterial potential and significant light absorbance in the UV range. The experimental results suggest that the synthesized samples have potential for applications in the health care field. PMID:28096668

  11. Alkali earth co-doping effects on luminescence and scintillation properties of Ce doped Gd3Al2Ga3O12 scintillator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kamada, Kei; Nikl, Martin; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Beitlerova, Alena; Nagura, Aya; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Pejchal, Jan; Ohashi, Yuji; Yokota, Yuui; Yoshikawa, Akira

    2015-03-01

    The Mg and Ca co-doped Ce:Gd3Al2Ga3O12 single crystals were prepared by micro pulling down method with a wide concentration range 0-1000 ppm of the codopants. Absorption and luminescence spectra were measured together with several other scintillation characteristics, namely the scintillation decay and light yield to reveal the effect of Mg and Ca co-doping. The scintillation decays were accelerated by both Mg and Ca codopants. Comparing to Ca co-doping, the Mg co-doped samples showed much faster decay and comparatively smaller light output decrease with increasing Mg dopant concentration.

  12. Enzymatic glucose detection using ZnO nanorods on the gate region of AlGaN /GaN high electron mobility transistors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kang, B. S.; Wang, H. T.; Ren, F.; Pearton, S. J.; Morey, T. E.; Dennis, D. M.; Johnson, J. W.; Rajagopal, P.; Roberts, J. C.; Piner, E. L.; Linthicum, K. J.

    2007-12-01

    ZnO nanorod-gated AlGaN /GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are demonstrated for the detection of glucose. A ZnO nanorod array was selectively grown on the gate area using low temperature hydrothermal decomposition to immobilize glucose oxidase (GOx). The one-dimensional ZnO nanorods provide a large effective surface area with high surface-to-volume ratio and provide a favorable environment for the immobilization of GOx. The AlGaN /GaN HEMT drain-source current showed a rapid response of less than 5s when target glucose in a buffer with a pH value of 7.4 was added to the GOx immobilized on the ZnO nanorod surface. We could detect a wide range of concentrations from 0.5nMto125μM. The sensor exhibited a linear range from 0.5nMto14.5μM and an experiment limit of detection of 0.5nM. This demonstrates the possibility of using AlGaN /GaN HEMTs for noninvasive exhaled breath condensate based glucose detection of diabetic application.

  13. Extremely high absolute internal quantum efficiency of photoluminescence in co-doped GaN:Zn,Si

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reshchikov, M. A.; Willyard, A. G.; Behrends, A.; Bakin, A.; Waag, A.

    2011-10-01

    We report on the fabrication of GaN co-doped with silicon and zinc by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy and a detailed study of photoluminescence in this material. We observe an exceptionally high absolute internal quantum efficiency of blue photoluminescence in GaN:Zn,Si. The value of 0.93±0.04 has been obtained from several approaches based on rate equations.

  14. Materials Design of the Codoping for the Fabrication of Low-Resistivity p-Type ZnSe and GaN by ab-initio Electronic Structure Calculation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katayama-Yoshida, H.; Yamamoto, T.

    1997-08-01

    We propose an effective doping method, the codoping (doping with n- and p-type dopants at the same time) method, for the fabrication of low-resistivity p-type ZnSe and GaN with wide-band-gap based upon ab-initio electronic band structure calculations. p-type doping eminently leads to an increase in the electrostatic energy, called the Madelung energy, which shifts the Se 4p levels for p-type doped ZnSe and the N 2p levels for p-type doped GaN materials towards higher energy regions. This leads to a destabilization of ionic charge distributions in p-type ZnSe and p-type GaN crystals, resulting in the self-compensation of anion intrinsic defects. For ZnSe crystals, we propose the codoping of n-type In donors at Zn sites and p-type N acceptors at Se sites based on the calculation. In addition, we propose the codoping of n-type Si-donors at Ga sites (n-type O donors at N sites) and p-type Be- or Mg acceptors at Ga sites. The codoping decreases the Madelung energy and leads to an increase in the net acceptor carrier density.

  15. Plasmonic enhanced optical characteristics of Ag nanostructured ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarkar, Arijit; Gogurla, Narendar; Shivakiran Bhaktha, B. N.; Ray, Samit K.

    2016-04-01

    We have demonstrated the enhanced photoluminescence and photoconducting characteristics of plasmonic Ag-ZnO films due to the light scattering effect from Ag nanoislands. Ag nanoislands have been prepared on ITO-coated glass substrates by thermal evaporation followed by annealing. Plasmonic Ag-ZnO films have been fabricated by depositing ZnO over Ag nanoislands by sol-gel process. The band-edge emission of ZnO is enhanced for 170 nm sized Ag nanoislands in ZnO as compared to pure ZnO. The defect emission is also found to be quenched simultaneously for plasmonic Ag-ZnO films. The enhancement and quenching of photoluminescence at different wavelengths for Ag-ZnO films can be well understood from the localized surface plasmon resonance of Ag nanoislands. The Ag-ZnO M-S-M photoconductor device showed a tenfold increment in photocurrent and faster photoresponse as compared to the control ZnO device. The enhancement in photoresponse of the device is due to the increased photon absorption in ZnO films via scattering of the incident illumination.

  16. Internal stress induced natural self-chemisorption of ZnO nanostructured films

    PubMed Central

    Chi, Po-Wei; Su, Chih-Wei; Wei, Da-Hua

    2017-01-01

    The energetic particles bombardment can produce large internal stress in the zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film, and it can be used to intentionally modify the surface characteristics of ZnO films. In this article, we observed that the internal stress increased from −1.62 GPa to −0.33 GPa, and the naturally wettability of the textured ZnO nanostructured films changed from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity. According to analysis of surface chemical states, the naturally controllable wetting behavior can be attributed to hydrocarbon adsorbates on the nanostructured film surface, which is caused by tunable internal stress. On the other hand, the interfacial water molecules near the surface of ZnO nanostructured films have been identified as hydrophobic hydrogen structure by Fourier transform infrared/attenuated total reflection. Moreover, a remarkable near-band-edge emission peak shifting also can be observed in PL spectra due to the transition of internal stress state. Furthermore, our present ZnO nanostructured films also exhibited excellent transparency over 80% with a wise surface wetting switched from hydrophobic to hydrophilic states after exposing in ultraviolet (UV) surroundings. Our work demonstrated that the internal stress of the thin film not only induced natural wettability transition of ZnO nanostructured films, but also in turn affected the surface properties such as surface chemisorption. PMID:28233827

  17. Internal stress induced natural self-chemisorption of ZnO nanostructured films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chi, Po-Wei; Su, Chih-Wei; Wei, Da-Hua

    2017-02-01

    The energetic particles bombardment can produce large internal stress in the zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film, and it can be used to intentionally modify the surface characteristics of ZnO films. In this article, we observed that the internal stress increased from -1.62 GPa to -0.33 GPa, and the naturally wettability of the textured ZnO nanostructured films changed from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity. According to analysis of surface chemical states, the naturally controllable wetting behavior can be attributed to hydrocarbon adsorbates on the nanostructured film surface, which is caused by tunable internal stress. On the other hand, the interfacial water molecules near the surface of ZnO nanostructured films have been identified as hydrophobic hydrogen structure by Fourier transform infrared/attenuated total reflection. Moreover, a remarkable near-band-edge emission peak shifting also can be observed in PL spectra due to the transition of internal stress state. Furthermore, our present ZnO nanostructured films also exhibited excellent transparency over 80% with a wise surface wetting switched from hydrophobic to hydrophilic states after exposing in ultraviolet (UV) surroundings. Our work demonstrated that the internal stress of the thin film not only induced natural wettability transition of ZnO nanostructured films, but also in turn affected the surface properties such as surface chemisorption.

  18. Internal stress induced natural self-chemisorption of ZnO nanostructured films.

    PubMed

    Chi, Po-Wei; Su, Chih-Wei; Wei, Da-Hua

    2017-02-24

    The energetic particles bombardment can produce large internal stress in the zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film, and it can be used to intentionally modify the surface characteristics of ZnO films. In this article, we observed that the internal stress increased from -1.62 GPa to -0.33 GPa, and the naturally wettability of the textured ZnO nanostructured films changed from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity. According to analysis of surface chemical states, the naturally controllable wetting behavior can be attributed to hydrocarbon adsorbates on the nanostructured film surface, which is caused by tunable internal stress. On the other hand, the interfacial water molecules near the surface of ZnO nanostructured films have been identified as hydrophobic hydrogen structure by Fourier transform infrared/attenuated total reflection. Moreover, a remarkable near-band-edge emission peak shifting also can be observed in PL spectra due to the transition of internal stress state. Furthermore, our present ZnO nanostructured films also exhibited excellent transparency over 80% with a wise surface wetting switched from hydrophobic to hydrophilic states after exposing in ultraviolet (UV) surroundings. Our work demonstrated that the internal stress of the thin film not only induced natural wettability transition of ZnO nanostructured films, but also in turn affected the surface properties such as surface chemisorption.

  19. ZnO Thin Film Electronics for More than Displays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ramirez, Jose Israel

    Zinc oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) are investigated in this work for large-area electronic applications outside of display technology. A constant pressure, constant flow, showerhead, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) process has been developed to fabricate high mobility TFTs and circuits on rigid and flexible substrates at 200 °C. ZnO films and resulting devices prepared by PEALD and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) have been compared. Both PEALD and PLD ZnO films result in densely packed, polycrystalline ZnO thin films that were used to make high performance devices. PEALD ZnO TFTs deposited at 300 °C have a field-effect mobility of ˜ 40 cm2/V-s (and > 20 cm2/V-S deposited at 200 °C). PLD ZnO TFTs, annealed at 400 °C, have a field-effect mobility of > 60 cm2/V-s (and up to 100 cm2/V-s). Devices, prepared by either technique, show high gamma-ray radiation tolerance of up to 100 Mrad(SiO2) with only a small radiation-induced threshold voltage shift (VT ˜ -1.5 V). Electrical biasing during irradiation showed no enhanced radiation-induced effects. The study of the radiation effects as a function of material stack thicknesses revealed the majority of the radiation-induced charge collection happens at the semiconductor-passivation interface. A simple sheet-charge model at that interface can describe the radiation-induced charge in ZnO TFTs. By taking advantage of the substrate-agnostic process provided by PEALD, due to its low-temperature and excellent conformal coatings, ZnO electronics were monolithically integrated with thin-film complex oxides. Application-based examples where ZnO electronics provide added functionality to complex oxide-based devices are presented. In particular, the integration of arrayed lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 or PZT) thin films with ZnO electronics for microelectromechanical systems (MEMs) and deformable mirrors is demonstrated. ZnO switches can provide voltage to PZT capacitors with fast charging and slow

  20. High-quality ZnO growth, doping, and polarization effect

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kun, Tang; Shulin, Gu; Jiandong, Ye; Shunming, Zhu; Rong, Zhang; Youdou, Zheng

    2016-03-01

    The authors have reported their recent progress in the research field of ZnO materials as well as the corresponding global advance. Recent results regarding (1) the development of high-quality epitaxy techniques, (2) the defect physics and the Te/N co-doping mechanism for p-type conduction, and (3) the design, realization, and properties of the ZnMgO/ZnO hetero-structures have been shown and discussed. A complete technology of the growth of high-quality ZnO epi-films and nano-crystals has been developed. The co-doping of N plus an iso-valent element to oxygen has been found to be the most hopeful path to overcome the notorious p-type hurdle. High mobility electrons have been observed in low-dimensional structures utilizing the polarization of ZnMgO and ZnO. Very different properties as well as new physics of the electrons in 2DEG and 3DES have been found as compared to the electrons in the bulk. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61025020, 61274058, 61322403, 61504057, 61574075), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK2011437, BK20130013, BK20150585), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

  1. Co-doping effects on luminescence and scintillation properties of Ce doped (Lu,Gd)3(Ga,Al)5O12 scintillator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamaguchi, Hiroaki; Kamada, Kei; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Pejchal, Jan; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Yokota, Yuui; Ohashi, Yuji; Yoshikawa, Akira

    2016-11-01

    Mg co-doping effects on scintillation properties of Ce:Lu1Gd2(Ga,Al)5O12 (LGGAG) were investigated. Mg 200 ppm co-doped Ce:LGGAG single crystals were prepared by micro pulling down method. Absorption and luminescence spectra were measured together with several other scintillation characteristics, namely the scintillation decay and light yield to reveal the effect of Mg co-doping. Ce4+ charge transfer absorption was observed below 300 nm in Mg,Ce:LGGAG which is in good agreement with previous reports. The scintillation decay times were accelerated by Mg co-doping.

  2. Improving p-type doping efficiency in Al0.83Ga0.17N alloy substituted by nanoscale (AlN)5/(GaN)1 superlattice with MgGa-ON δ-codoping: Role of O-atom in GaN monolayer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhong, Hong-xia; Shi, Jun-jie; Zhang, Min; Jiang, Xin-he; Huang, Pu; Ding, Yi-min

    2015-01-01

    We calculate Mg-acceptor activation energy EA and investigate the influence of O-atom, occupied the Mg nearest-neighbor, on EA in nanoscale (AlN)5/(GaN)1 superlattice (SL), a substitution for Al0.83Ga0.17N disorder alloy, using first-principles calculations. We find that the N-atom bonded with Ga-atom is more easily substituted by O-atom and nMgGa-ON (n = 1-3) complexes are favorable and stable in the SL. The O-atom plays a dominant role in reducing EA. The shorter the Mg-O bond is, the smaller the EA is. The Mg-acceptor activation energy can be reduced significantly by nMgGa-ON δ-codoping. Our calculated EA for 2MgGa-ON is 0.21 eV, and can be further reduced to 0.13 eV for 3MgGa-ON, which results in a high hole concentration in the order of 1020 cm-3 at room temperature in (AlN)5/(GaN)1 SL. Our results prove that nMgGa-ON (n = 2,3) δ-codoping in AlN/GaN SL with ultrathin GaN-layer is an effective way to improve p-type doping efficiency in Al-rich AlGaN.

  3. Zinc oxide wide band gap semiconductor for optoelectronic devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Choopun, Supab

    The main objective of this dissertation is to study the key aspects of ZnO-based materials for fabrication of wide band gap optoelectronic devices. ZnO has received attention due to its direct band gap, alloying and doping capabilities. It has similar properties to that of GaN, a material system that has become very important for the fabrication of blue light emitting diodes, laser diodes, detectors, etc. In this study, ZnO and related materials were grown in thin film form on c-plane sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition and then, these films were mainly studied in terms of their structural, optical and electrical properties. The studied key aspects include growth and optimization of device quality ZnO films, band gap tailoring of ZnO films by alloying, fabrication of quantum well structures, and impurity doping for n-type and p-type ZnO films. The growth and optimization of ZnO films have been studied as a function of substrate temperature and oxygen background pressure. By tuning the growth temperature and oxygen pressure during the initial and final stages of growth, it was possible to control desirable surface, interface chemistry structure, crystalline quality, and optoelectronic properties of the films while maintaining high quality epitaxy. Band gap tailoring has been studied by alloying of ZnO with MgO. MgZnO alloy films exhibit two phases, hexagonal and cubic, depending on the Mg concentration in the MgZnO lattice. The band gap energy of MgZnO alloys can be varied in a wide range from 3.3 eV to 4.0 eV for hexagonal structured films and 4.0 to 7.6 eV for cubic structured films. Studies both n-type as well as p-type doping and activation in ZnO films are reported. It was found that In-doped ZnO films with high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity can be grown at temperature below 300°C. P-type ZnO films have been studied by using a cationic-codoping method. Weak p-type conductivity in ZnO films was obtained from Cu and Al codoping

  4. Synthesis and annealing study of RF sputtered ZnO thin film

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Singh, Shushant Kumar, E-mail: singhshushant86@gmail.com; Sharma, Himanshu; Singhal, R.

    2016-05-23

    In this paper, we have investigated the annealing effect on optical and structural properties of ZnO thin films, synthesized by RF magnetron sputtering. ZnO thin films were deposited on glass and silicon substrates simultaneously at a substrate temperature of 300 °C using Argon gas in sputtering chamber. Thickness of as deposited ZnO thin film was found to be ~155 nm, calculated by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS). These films were annealed at 400 °C and 500 °C temperature in the continuous flow of oxygen gas for 1 hour in tube furnace. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of hexagonal wurtzite structuremore » of ZnO thin film along the c-axis (002) orientation. Transmittance of thin films was increased with increasing the annealing temperature estimated by UV-visible transmission spectroscopy. Quality and texture of the thin films were improved with annealing temperature, estimated by Raman spectroscopy.« less

  5. Development of nanostructured ZnO thin film via electrohydrodynamic atomization technique and its photoconductivity characteristics.

    PubMed

    Duraisamy, Navaneethan; Kwon, Ki Rin; Jo, Jeongdai; Choi, Kyung-Hyun

    2014-08-01

    This article presents the non-vacuum technique for the preparation of nanostructured zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film on glass substrate through electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) technique. The detailed process parameters for achieving homogeneous ZnO thin films are clearly discussed. The crystallinity and surface morphology of ZnO thin film are investigated by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The result shows that the deposited ZnO thin film is oriented in the wurtzite phase with void free surface morphology. The surface roughness of deposited ZnO thin film is found to be ~17.8 nm. The optical properties of nanostructured ZnO thin films show the average transmittance is about 90% in the visible region and the energy band gap is found to be 3.17 eV. The surface chemistry and purity of deposited ZnO thin films are analyzed by fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, conforming the presence of Zn-O in the deposited thin films without any organic moiety. The photocurrent measurement of nanostructured ZnO thin film is examined in the presence of UV light illumination with wavelength of 365 nm. These results suggest that the deposited nanostructured ZnO thin film through EHDA technique possess promising applications in the near future.

  6. Oxygen vacancy-induced ferromagnetism in un-doped ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhan, Peng; Wang, Weipeng; Liu, Can; Hu, Yang; Li, Zhengcao; Zhang, Zhengjun; Zhang, Peng; Wang, Baoyi; Cao, Xingzhong

    2012-02-01

    ZnO films became ferromagnetic when defects were introduced by thermal-annealing in flowing argon. This ferromagnetism, as shown by the photoluminescence measurement and positron annihilation analysis, was induced by the singly occupied oxygen vacancy with a saturated magnetization dependent positively on the amount of this vacancy. This study clarified the origin of the ferromagnetism of un-doped ZnO thin films and provides possibly an alternative way to prepare ferromagnetic ZnO films.

  7. Electrical properties of lightly Ga-doped ZnO nanowires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alagha, S.; Heedt, S.; Vakulov, D.; Mohammadbeigi, F.; Senthil Kumar, E.; Schäpers, Th; Isheim, D.; Watkins, S. P.; Kavanagh, K. L.

    2017-12-01

    We investigated the growth, crystal structure, elemental composition and electrical transport characteristics of ZnO nanowires, a promising candidate for optoelectronic applications in the UV-range. Nominally-undoped and Ga-doped ZnO nanowires were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Photoluminescence measurements confirmed the incorporation of Ga via donor-bound exciton emission. With atom-probe tomography we estimated an upper limit of the Ga impurity concentration ({10}18 {{cm}}-3). We studied the electrical transport characteristics of these nanowires with a W-nanoprobe technique inside a scanning electron microscope and with lithographically-defined contacts allowing back-gated measurements. An increase in apparent resistivity by two orders of magnitude with decreasing radius was measured with both techniques with a much larger distribution width for the nanoprobe method. A drop in the effective carrier concentration and mobility was found with decreasing radius which can be attributed to carrier depletion and enhanced scattering due to surface states. Little evidence of a change in resistivity was observed with Ga doping, which indicates that the concentration of native or background dopants is higher than the Ga doping concentration.

  8. Ultrathin ZnO interfacial passivation layer for atomic layer deposited ZrO2 dielectric on the p-In0.2Ga0.8As substrate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Chen; Lü, Hongliang; Yang, Tong; Zhang, Yuming; Zhang, Yimen; Liu, Dong; Ma, Zhenqiang; Yu, Weijian; Guo, Lixin

    2018-06-01

    Interfacial and electrical properties were investigated on metal-oxidesemiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) fabricated with bilayer ZnO/ZrO2 films by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on p-In0.2Ga0.8As substrates. The ZnO passivated In0.2Ga0.8As MOSCAPs have exhibited significantly improved capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics with the suppressed "stretched out" effect, increased accumulation capacitance and reduced accumulation frequency dispersion as well as the lower gate leakage current. In addition, the interface trap density (Dit) estimated by the Terman method was decreased dramatically for ZnO passivated p-In0.2Ga0.8As. The inherent mechanism is attributed to the fact that an ultrathin ZnO IPL employed by ALD prior to ZrO2 dielectric deposition can effectively suppress the formation of defect-related low-k oxides and As-As dimers at the interface, thus effectively improving the interface quality by largely removing the border traps aligned near the valence band edge of the p-In0.2Ga0.8As substrate.

  9. ZnO nanorods/graphene/Ni/Au hybrid structures as transparent conductive layer in GaN LED for low work voltage and high light extraction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Kun; Xie, Yiyang; Ma, Huali; Du, Yinxiao; Zeng, Fanguang; Ding, Pei; Gao, Zhiyuan; Xu, Chen; Sun, Jie

    2016-12-01

    In this paper, by virtue of one-dimensional ZnO nanorods and two-dimensional graphene film hybrid structures, both the enhanced current spreading and enhanced light extraction were realized at the same time. A 1 nm/1 nm Ni/Au layer was used as an interlayer between graphene and pGaN to form ohmic contact, which makes the device have a good forward conduction properties. Through the comparison of the two groups of making ZnO nanorods or not, it was found that the 30% light extraction efficiency of the device was improved by using the ZnO nanorods. By analysis key parameters of two groups such as the turn-on voltage, work voltage and reverse leakage current, it was proved that the method for preparing surface nano structure by hydrothermal method self-organization growth ZnO nanorods applied in GaN LEDs has no influence to device's electrical properties. The hybrid structure application in GaN LED, make an achievement of a good ohmic contact, no use of ITO and enhancement of light extraction at the same time, meanwhile it does not change the device structure, introduce additional process, worsen the electrical properties.

  10. Transparent ZnO-based ohmic contact to p-GaN

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kaminska, E.; Piotrowska, A.; Golaszewska, K.

    2002-04-09

    Highly conductive ZnO films were fabricated on p-GaN in a two-step process. First, zinc was thermally evaporated on p-GaN. Next, zinc film was oxidized in oxygen flow. To increase the conductivity of ZnO, nitrogen was introduced into zinc during its deposition. The above procedure proved successful in fabricating ZnO of the resistivity of {approx}1 x 10{sup -3} {Omega}cm and resulted in ohmic contacts of resistivity {approx}1 x 10{sup -2} {Omega}cm{sup 2} to low-doped p-GaN, and light transmittance of {approx}75% in the wavelength range of 400-700 nm.

  11. Effect of Mg codoping on Eu3+ luminescence in GaN grown by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Takagi, Yasufumi; Suwa, Takanobu; Sekiguchi, Hiroto; Okada, Hiroshi; Wakahara, Akihiro

    2011-10-01

    The effect of Mg codoping on the Eu3+ luminescence in GaN was investigated by photoluminescence measurements. Two notable emission peaks associated with the 5D0→7F2 transition in the Eu3+ ions were governed by Mg codopants, which corresponded to the change of the dominant peak wavelength from 622.3 to 620.3 nm with an increase in Mg concentration. An optimal amount of Mg also led to enhancement of approximately 20 times of the Eu3+ luminescence. These results indicated that the Mg codopants selectively activated the optical site of 620.3 nm emission due to the elimination of nonradiative deexcitation paths from the 5D0 state.

  12. Chemical lift-off and direct wafer bonding of GaN/InGaN P-I-N structures grown on ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pantzas, K.; Rogers, D. J.; Bove, P.; Sandana, V. E.; Teherani, F. H.; El Gmili, Y.; Molinari, M.; Patriarche, G.; Largeau, L.; Mauguin, O.; Suresh, S.; Voss, P. L.; Razeghi, M.; Ougazzaden, A.

    2016-02-01

    p-GaN/i-InGaN/n-GaN (PIN) structures were grown epitaxially on ZnO-buffered c-sapphire substrates by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy using the industry standard ammonia precursor for nitrogen. Scanning electron microscopy revealed continuous layers with a smooth interface between GaN and ZnO and no evidence of ZnO back-etching. Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy revealed a peak indium content of just under 5 at% in the active layers. The PIN structure was lifted off the sapphire by selectively etching away the ZnO buffer in an acid and then direct bonded onto a glass substrate. Detailed high resolution transmission electron microscoy and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the structural quality of the PIN structures was preserved during the transfer process.

  13. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations of band offsets in Ga0.02Zn0.98O/ZnO heterojunction for UV photodetectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Karmvir; Rawal, Ishpal; Punia, Rajesh; Dhar, Rakesh

    2017-10-01

    Here, we report the valence and conduction band offset measurements in pure ZnO and the Ga0.02Zn0.98O/ZnO heterojunction by X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies for UV photodetector applications. For detailed investigations on the band offsets and UV photodetection behavior of Ga0.02Zn0.98O/ZnO heterostructures, thin films of pristine ZnO, Ga-doped ZnO (Ga0.02Zn0.98O), and heterostructures of Ga-doped ZnO with ZnO (Ga0.02Zn0.98O/ZnO) were deposited using a pulsed laser deposition technique. The deposited thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies were carried out on all the thin films for the investigation of valence and conduction band offsets. The valence band was found to be shifted by 0.28 eV, while the conduction band has a shifting of -0.272 eV in the Ga0.02Zn0.98O/ZnO heterojunction as compared to pristine ZnO thin films. All the three samples were analyzed for photoconduction behavior under UVA light of the intensity of 3.3 mW/cm2, and it was observed that the photoresponse of pristine ZnO (19.75%) was found to increase with 2 wt. % doping of Ga (22.62%) and heterostructured thin films (29.10%). The mechanism of UV photodetection in the deposited samples has been discussed in detail, and the interaction of chemisorbed oxygen on the ZnO surface with holes generated by UV light exposure has been the observed mechanism for the change in electrical conductivity responsible for UV photoresponse on the present deposited ZnO films.

  14. Doping induced c-axis oriented growth of transparent ZnO thin film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mistry, Bhaumik V.; Joshi, U. S.

    2018-04-01

    c-Axis oriented In doped ZnO (IZO) transparent conducting thin films were optimized on glass substrate using sol gel spin coating method. The Indium content in ZnO was varied systematically and the structural parameters were studied. Along with the crystallographic properties, the optoelectronic and electrical properties of IZO thin films were investigated in detail. The IZO thin films revealed hexagonal wurtzite structure. It was found that In doping in ZnO promotes the c-axis oriented growth of the thin films deposited on amorphous substrate. The particle size of the IZO films were increase as doping content increases from 2% to 5%. The 2% In doped ZnO film show electrical resistivity of 0.11 Ω cm, which is far better than the reported value for ZnO thin film. Better than 75% average optical transmission was estimated in the wavelength range from 400-800 nm. Systematic variartions in the electron concentration and band gap was observed with increasing In doping. Note worthy finding is that, with suitable amount of In doping improves not only transparency and conductivity but also improves the preferred orientation of the oxide thin film.

  15. Improved luminescence intensity and stability of thermal annealed ZnO incorporated Alq3 composite films.

    PubMed

    Cuba, M; Muralidharan, G

    2015-11-01

    The 30 wt% of ZnO (weight percentage of ZnO has been optimised) incorporated tris- (8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq3) has been synthesised and coated on to glass substrates using dip coating method. The structural and optical properties of the Alq3/ZnO composite film after thermal annealing from 50 to 300 °C insteps 50° has been studied and reported. XRD pattern reveals the presence of crystalline ZnO in all the annealed films. The films annealed above 150 °C reveal the presence of crystalline Alq3 along with crystalline ZnO. The FTIR spectra confirm the presence of hydroxyquinoline and ZnO vibration in all the annealed composite films. The composite films annealed above 150 °C show a partial sublimation and degradation of hydroxyquinoline compounds. The ZnO incorporated composite films (Alq3/ZnO) exhibit two emission peaks, one corresponding to ZnO at 487 nm and another at 513 nm due to Alq3. The films annealed at 200 °C exhibit maximum photoluminescence (PL) intensity than pristine film at 513 nm when excited at 390 nm.

  16. [Preparation, spectral analysis and photocatalytic activities of TiO2 films codoped with iron and nitrogen].

    PubMed

    Liu, Wan-bing; Deng, Jian; Zhao, Yu-bao; Xu, Jin-sheng; Zhou, Liang

    2009-05-01

    Using tetrabutyl titanate as the titanium source, and ammonia and ferric nitrate as the sources of nitrogen and ferrum respectively, iron and nitrogen-codoped nano-TiO2 gelatins were prepared by sol-gel method. The iron and nitrogen-codoped nano-TiO2 complex films were prepared with the obtained gelatins used to coat the surface of cleaned glass slides by several times of dipping-lifting procedure, followed by natural seasoning at room temperature and calcined at 450 degrees C for 3 hours, then the films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS) and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectrum (UV-Vis). The XRD spectra o f samples showed that the Fe-TiO(2-x)Nx, filmswere of anatase structure with a few of oxygen atoms in the lattice of anatase TiO2 substituted by nitrogen atoms, resulting in the distortion of crystal lattice. The SEM image showed that the nanoparticles of the films have a good dispersion characteristic and uniform orbicular shape with an average diameter of about 19 nm. The absorption edges of UV-Vis spectra exhibited a red shift up to 740 nm when the TiO2 films were codoped with iron and nitrogen. The XPS of the Fe-TiO(2-x)Nx film presented a lowering of Ti 2p(3/2) electron binding energy because of the codoping of iron and nitrogen, which then resulted in the widening of the absorption of visible light range. The photocatalytic properties were studied by photocatalytical degradation of sudan I as a model reaction in a self-assembled light-reactor. When the atomic ratio of Fe3+/Ti4+ reached 0.4%, the Fe-TiO(2-x)Nx film showed the highest catalytic performance in degradation of sudan I which was decomposed by up to 97% after 4 hours of photocatalytic reaction. Codoping of nitrogen and appropriate amount of iron in TiO2 enhances photoresponse and utilizing efficiency in visible light region, and then improves the performances of Fe-TiO(2-x)Nx photocatalyst. The complex

  17. Substrate effect on the room-temperature ferromagnetism in un-doped ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhan, Peng; Wang, Weipeng; Xie, Zheng; Li, Zhengcao; Zhang, Zhengjun; Zhang, Peng; Wang, Baoyi; Cao, Xingzhong

    2012-07-01

    Room-temperature ferromagnetism was achieved in un-doped ZnO films on silicon and quartz substrates. Photoluminescence measurement and positron annihilation analysis suggested that the ferromagnetism was originated from singly occupied oxygen vacancies (roughly estimated as ˜0.55 μB/vacancy), created in ZnO films by annealing in argon. The saturated magnetization of ZnO films was enhanced from ˜0.44 emu/g (on quartz) to ˜1.18 emu/g (on silicon) after annealing at 600 °C, as silicon acted as oxygen getter and created more oxygen vacancies in ZnO films. This study clarified the origin of ferromagnetism in un-doped ZnO and provides an idea to enhance the ferromagnetism.

  18. ZnO thin film piezoelectric micromachined microphone with symmetric composite vibrating diaphragm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Junhong; Wang, Chenghao; Ren, Wei; Ma, Jun

    2017-05-01

    Residual stress is an important factor affecting the sensitivity of piezoelectric micromachined microphone. A symmetric composite vibrating diaphragm was adopted in the micro electro mechanical systems piezoelectric microphone to decrease the residual stress and improve the sensitivity of microphone in this paper. The ZnO film was selected as piezoelectric materials of microphone for its higher piezoelectric coefficient d 31 and lower relative dielectric constant. The thickness optimization of piezoelectric film on square diaphragm is difficult to be fulfilled by analytic method. To optimize the thickness of ZnO films, the stress distribution in ZnO film was analyzed by finite element method and the average stress in different thickness of ZnO films was given. The ZnO films deposited using dc magnetron sputtering exhibits a densely packed structure with columnar crystallites preferentially oriented along (002) plane. The diaphragm of microphone fabricated by micromachining techniques is flat and no wrinkling at corners, and the sensitivity of microphone is higher than 1 mV Pa-1. These results indicate the diaphragm has lower residual stress.

  19. Absolute surface energy calculations of Wurtzite (0001)/(000-1): a study of ZnO and GaN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Jingzhao; Zhang, Yiou; Tse, Kinfai; Deng, Bei; Xu, Hu; Zhu, Junyi

    The accurate absolute surface energies of (0001)/(000-1) surfaces of wurtzite structures are crucial in determining the thin film growth mode of important energy materials. However, the surface energies still remain to be solved due to the intrinsic difficulty of calculating dangling bond energy of asymmetrically bonded surface atoms. We used a pseudo-hydrogen passivation method to estimate the dangling bond energy and calculate the polar surfaces of ZnO and GaN. The calculations were based on the pseudo chemical potentials obtained from a set of tetrahedral clusters or simple pseudo-molecules, using density functional theory approaches, for both GGA and HSE. And the surface energies of (0001)/(000-1) surfaces of wurtzite ZnO and GaN we obtained showed relatively high self-consistencies. A wedge structure calculation with a new bottom surface passivation scheme of group I and group VII elements was also proposed and performed to show converged absolute surface energy of wurtzite ZnO polar surfaces. Part of the computing resources was provided by the High Performance Cluster Computing Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University. This work was supported by the start-up funding and direct Grant with the Project code of 4053134 at CUHK.

  20. Effect of Ga doping and point defect on magnetism of ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hou, Qingyu; Zhao, Chunwang; Jia, Xiaofang; Qu, Lingfeng

    2017-02-01

    The combined influence mechanism of Ga doping and Zn vacancy or O vacancy on magnetism of ZnO is studied using the first-principle calculation. The coexistence of Ga doping and Zn vacancy can achieve a Curie temperature higher than room temperature and the Ga doped ZnO system is a p-type diluted degenerate semiconductor with metalized ferromagnetism. The magnetism of the doping system of Ga doping and Zn vacancy is mainly contributed by double-exchange interaction through the holes of Zn vacancy taking carrier as medium. However, the system of Ga doping and O vacancy is non-magnetic. In the coexistence of Ga doping and Zn vacancy or O vacancy, a close relative distance between doping and vacancy will reduce the formation energy of the doping system but increase the easiness of doping and vacancy, as well as enhance the stability of the doping system.

  1. Effect of Mg doping in ZnO buffer layer on ZnO thin film devices for electronic applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giri, Pushpa; Chakrabarti, P.

    2016-05-01

    Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films have been grown on p-silicon (Si) substrate using magnesium doped ZnO (Mg: ZnO) buffer layer by radio-frequency (RF) sputtering method. In this paper, we have optimized the concentration of Mg (0-5 atomic percent (at. %)) ZnO buffer layer to examine its effect on ZnO thin film based devices for electronic and optoelectronic applications. The crystalline nature, morphology and topography of the surface of the thin film have been characterized. The optical as well as electrical properties of the active ZnO film can be tailored by varying the concentration of Mg in the buffer layer. The crystallite size in the active ZnO thin film was found to increase with the Mg concentration in the buffer layer in the range of 0-3 at. % and subsequently decrease with increasing Mg atom concentration in the ZnO. The same was verified by the surface morphology and topography studies carried out with scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic electron microscopy (AFM) respectively. The reflectance in the visible region was measured to be less than 80% and found to decrease with increase in Mg concentration from 0 to 3 at. % in the buffer region. The optical bandgap was initially found to increase from 3.02 eV to 3.74 eV by increasing the Mg content from 0 to 3 at. % but subsequently decreases and drops down to 3.43 eV for a concentration of 5 at. %. The study of an Au:Pd/ZnO Schottky diode reveals that for optimum doping of the buffer layer the device exhibits superior rectifying behavior. The barrier height, ideality factor, rectification ratio, reverse saturation current and series resistance of the Schottky diode were extracted from the measured current voltage (I-V) characteristics.

  2. Franz-Keldysh effect in epitaxial ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bridoux, G.; Villafuerte, M.; Ferreyra, J. M.; Guimpel, J.; Nieva, G.; Figueroa, C. A.; Straube, B.; Heluani, S. P.

    2018-02-01

    Photoconductance spectroscopy has been studied in epitaxial ZnO thin films with different thicknesses that range between 136 and 21 nm. We report a systematic decrease in photoconductivity and a red shift in band edge photoconductance spectra when the thickness is reduced. For thinner films, it is found that the effective energy gap value diminishes. By time dependent photoconductivity measurements, we found an enhanced contribution of the slow relaxation times for thicker films. These effects are interpreted in terms of a band-bending contribution where the Franz-Keldysh effect and the polarization of ZnO play a major role in thinner films.

  3. Surface-emitting stimulated emission in high-quality ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, X. Q.; Suemune, Ikuo; Kumano, H.; Wang, J.; Huang, S. H.

    2004-10-01

    High-quality ZnO thin films were grown by plasma-enhanced molecular-beam epitaxy on sapphire substrates. Three excitonic transitions associated with the valence bands A, B, and C were clearly revealed in the reflectance spectrum measured at 33K. This result indicates that the ZnO thin films have the wurtzite crystalline structure. The emission spectra were measured with backscattering geometry at room temperature. When the excitation exceeded a certain value, linewidth narrowing, nonlinear rise of emission intensity, and the shortening of the carrier lifetime were clearly observed and these demonstrate the onset of stimulated emission. Together with the ZnO thickness dependence, we conclude that the observation of a stimulated emission in a direction perpendicular to the film surface is predominantly due to scattering of the in-plane stimulated emission by slightly remaining surface undulations in the ZnO films.

  4. Electronic structure and magnetism of epitaxial Ni-Mn-Ga(-Co) thin films with partial disorder: a view across the phase transition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schleicher, B.; Klar, D.; Ollefs, K.; Diestel, A.; Walecki, D.; Weschke, E.; Schultz, L.; Nielsch, K.; Fähler, S.; Wende, H.; Gruner, M. E.

    2017-11-01

    The influence of Co-doping in off-stoichiometric Ni-Mn-Ga and Ni-Mn-Ga-Co thin films on the magnetic coupling of the atoms is investigated with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism in both the martensitic as well as austenitic phase, respectively. Additionally, first principles calculations were performed to compare the experimentally obtained absorption spectra with theoretical predictions. Calculated exchange constants and density of states for the different atomic sites underline the large influence of chemical and magnetic order on the magnetocaloric properties of the material.

  5. Comparison on electrically pumped random laser actions of hydrothermal and sputtered ZnO films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Canxing; Jiang, Haotian; Li, Yunpeng

    2013-10-07

    Random lasing (RL) in polycrystalline ZnO films is an intriguing research subject. Here, we have comparatively investigated electrically pumped RL behaviors of two metal-insulator-semiconductor structured devices using the hydrothermal and sputtered ZnO films as the semiconductor components, i.e., the light-emitting layers, respectively. It is demonstrated that the device using the hydrothermal ZnO film exhibits smaller threshold current and larger output optical power of the electrically pumped RL. The morphological characterization shows that the hydrothermal ZnO film is somewhat porous and is much rougher than the sputtered one, suggesting that in the former stronger multiple light scattering can occur. Moreover, themore » photoluminescence characterization indicates that there are fewer defects in the hydrothermal ZnO film than in the sputtered one, which means that the photons can pick up larger optical gain through stimulated emission in the hydrothermal ZnO film. Therefore, it is believed that the stronger multiple light scattering and larger optical gain contribute to the improved performance of the electrically pumped RL from the device using the hydrothermal ZnO film.« less

  6. Impact of Substrate Types on Structure and Emission of ZnO Nanocrystalline Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ballardo Rodriguez, I. Ch.; El Filali, B.; Díaz Cano, A. I.; Torchynska, T. V.

    2018-02-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) films were simultaneously synthesized by an ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) method on p-type Si (100), silicon carbide polytype [6H-SiC (0001)], porous 6H-SiC and amorphous glass substrates with the aim of studying the impact of substrate types on the structure and emission of ZnO nanocrystalline films. Porous silicon carbide (P-SiC) was prepared by the electrochemical anodization method at a constant potential of 20 V and etching time of 12 min. ZnO films grown on the SiC and P-SiC substrates are characterized by a wurtzite crystal structure with preferential growth along the (002) direction and with grain sizes of 90-180 and 70-160 nm, respectively. ZnO films grown on the Si substrate have just some small irregular hexagonal islands. The amorphous glass substrate did not promote the formation of any regular crystal forms. The obtained x-ray diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) results have shown that the better ZnO film crystallinity and high PL intensity of near-band edge emissions were achieved in the films grown on the porous SiC and SiC substrates. The preferential growth and crystalline nature of ZnO films on the SiC substrate have been discussed from the point of view of the lattice parameter compatibility between ZnO and SiC crystals.

  7. Highly stable precursor solution containing ZnO nanoparticles for the preparation of ZnO thin film transistors.

    PubMed

    Huang, Heh-Chang; Hsieh, Tsung-Eong

    2010-07-23

    ZnO particles with an average size of about 5 nm were prepared via a sol-gel chemical route and the silane coupling agent, (3-glycidyloxypropyl)-trimethoxysilane (GPTS), was adopted to enhance the dispersion of the ZnO nanoparticles in ethyl glycol (EG) solution. A ZnO surface potential as high as 66 mV was observed and a sedimentation test showed that the ZnO precursor solution remains transparent for six months of storage, elucidating the success of surface modification on ZnO nanoparticles. The ZnO thin films were then prepared by spin coating the precursor solution on a Si wafer and annealing treatments at temperatures up to 500 degrees C were performed for subsequent preparation of ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs). Microstructure characterization revealed that the coalescence of ZnO nanoparticles occurs at temperatures as low as 200 degrees C to result in a highly uniform, nearly pore-free layer. However, annealing at higher temperatures was required to remove organic residues in the ZnO layer for satisfactory device performance. The 500 degrees C-annealed ZnO TFT sample exhibited the best electrical properties with on/off ratio = 10(5), threshold voltage = 17.1 V and mobility (micro) = 0.104 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1).

  8. Nanostructured hybrid ZnO thin films for energy conversion

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    We report on hybrid films based on ZnO/organic dye prepared by electrodeposition using tetrasulfonated copper phthalocyanines (TS-CuPc) and Eosin-Y (EoY). Both the morphology and porosity of hybrid ZnO films are highly dependent on the type of dyes used in the synthesis. High photosensitivity was observed for ZnO/EoY films, while a very weak photoresponse was obtained for ZnO/TS-CuPc films. Despite a higher absorption coefficient of TS-CuPc than EoY, in ZnO/EoY hybrid films, the excited photoelectrons between the EoY levels can be extracted through ZnO, and the porosity of ZnO/EoY can also be controlled. PMID:21711909

  9. Li+, Na+ and K+ co-doping effects on scintillation properties of Ce:Gd3Ga3Al2O12 single crystals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoshino, Masao; Kamada, Kei; Kochurikhin, Vladimir V.; Ivanov, Mikhail; Nikl, Martin; Okumura, Satoshi; Yamamoto, Seiichi; Yeom, Jung Yeol; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Yokota, Yuui; Ohashi, Yuji; Yoshikawa, Akira

    2018-06-01

    Ce0.5%: Ce:Gd3Ga3Al2O12(GGAG) single crystals co-doped with 500at.ppm Li+, Na+ and K+ were grown by using the micro-pulling down method. The smooth Ce4+ charge transfer absorption below 350 nm and decay time acceleration were observed in Li co-doped sample. Na+ and K+ co-doping did not show a large effect on the acceleration of decay time compared with Li co-doping. Ce0.5%:GGAG single crystals co-doped with 500 at.ppm Li+ were also grown by the Czochralski method. Optical, scintillation properties and timing performance were evaluated to investigate the effect of univalent alkali metal ions co-doping on Ce:GGAG scintillators. The scintillation decay curves were accelerated by Li co-doping: the decay time was significantly accelerated to 54.8 ns (47%) for the faster component and 158 ns (53%) for the slower component. The light output was 94% of the non co-doped Ce:GGAG standard. The coincidence time resolution was improved to 258 ps by Li co-doping.

  10. Rare-metal-free high-performance Ga-Sn-O thin film transistor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Matsuda, Tokiyoshi; Umeda, Kenta; Kato, Yuta; Nishimoto, Daiki; Furuta, Mamoru; Kimura, Mutsumi

    2017-03-01

    Oxide semiconductors have been investigated as channel layers for thin film transistors (TFTs) which enable next-generation devices such as high-resolution liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, flexible electronics, and innovative devices. Here, high-performance and stable Ga-Sn-O (GTO) TFTs were demonstrated for the first time without the use of rare metals such as In. The GTO thin films were deposited using radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. A high field effect mobility of 25.6 cm2/Vs was achieved, because the orbital structure of Sn was similar to that of In. The stability of the GTO TFTs was examined under bias, temperature, and light illumination conditions. The electrical behaviour of the GTO TFTs was more stable than that of In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) TFTs, which was attributed to the elimination of weak Zn-O bonds.

  11. Rare-metal-free high-performance Ga-Sn-O thin film transistor

    PubMed Central

    Matsuda, Tokiyoshi; Umeda, Kenta; Kato, Yuta; Nishimoto, Daiki; Furuta, Mamoru; Kimura, Mutsumi

    2017-01-01

    Oxide semiconductors have been investigated as channel layers for thin film transistors (TFTs) which enable next-generation devices such as high-resolution liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, flexible electronics, and innovative devices. Here, high-performance and stable Ga-Sn-O (GTO) TFTs were demonstrated for the first time without the use of rare metals such as In. The GTO thin films were deposited using radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. A high field effect mobility of 25.6 cm2/Vs was achieved, because the orbital structure of Sn was similar to that of In. The stability of the GTO TFTs was examined under bias, temperature, and light illumination conditions. The electrical behaviour of the GTO TFTs was more stable than that of In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) TFTs, which was attributed to the elimination of weak Zn-O bonds. PMID:28290547

  12. Rare-metal-free high-performance Ga-Sn-O thin film transistor.

    PubMed

    Matsuda, Tokiyoshi; Umeda, Kenta; Kato, Yuta; Nishimoto, Daiki; Furuta, Mamoru; Kimura, Mutsumi

    2017-03-14

    Oxide semiconductors have been investigated as channel layers for thin film transistors (TFTs) which enable next-generation devices such as high-resolution liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays, flexible electronics, and innovative devices. Here, high-performance and stable Ga-Sn-O (GTO) TFTs were demonstrated for the first time without the use of rare metals such as In. The GTO thin films were deposited using radiofrequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. A high field effect mobility of 25.6 cm 2 /Vs was achieved, because the orbital structure of Sn was similar to that of In. The stability of the GTO TFTs was examined under bias, temperature, and light illumination conditions. The electrical behaviour of the GTO TFTs was more stable than that of In-Ga-Zn-O (IGZO) TFTs, which was attributed to the elimination of weak Zn-O bonds.

  13. Fabrication of ZnO photonic crystals by nanosphere lithography using inductively coupled-plasma reactive ion etching with CH{sub 4}/H{sub 2}/Ar plasma on the ZnO/GaN heterojunction light emitting diodes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chen, Shr-Jia; Chang, Chun-Ming; Kao, Jiann-Shiun

    2010-07-15

    This article reports fabrication of n-ZnO photonic crystal/p-GaN light emitting diode (LED) by nanosphere lithography to further booster the light efficiency. In this article, the fabrication of ZnO photonic crystals is carried out by nanosphere lithography using inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching with CH{sub 4}/H{sub 2}/Ar plasma on the n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction LEDs. The CH{sub 4}/H{sub 2}/Ar mixed gas gives high etching rate of n-ZnO film, which yields a better surface morphology and results less plasma-induced damages of the n-ZnO film. Optimal ZnO lattice parameters of 200 nm and air fill factor from 0.35 to 0.65 were obtained from fittingmore » the spectrum of n-ZnO/p-GaN LED using a MATLAB code. In this article, we will show our recent result that a ZnO photonic crystal cylinder has been fabricated using polystyrene nanosphere mask with lattice parameter of 200 nm and radius of hole around 70 nm. Surface morphology of ZnO photonic crystal was examined by scanning electron microscope.« less

  14. Ultraviolet emission enhancement in ZnO thin films modified by nanocrystalline TiO2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zheng, Gaige; Lu, Xi; Qian, Liming; Xian, Fenglin

    2017-05-01

    In this study, nanocrystalline TiO2 modified ZnO thin films were prepared by electron beam evaporation. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), UV-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively. The composition of the films was examined by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The photoluminescent spectrum shows that the pure ZnO thin film exhibits an ultraviolet (UV) emission peak and a strong green emission band. Surface analysis indicates that the ZnO thin film contains many oxygen vacancy defects on the surface. After the ZnO thin film is modified by the nanocrystalline TiO2 layer, the UV emission of ZnO is largely enhanced and the green emission is greatly suppressed, which suggests that the surface defects such as oxygen vacancies are passivated by the TiO2 capping layer. As for the UV emission enhancement of the ZnO thin film, the optimized thickness of the TiO2 capping layer is ∼16 nm. When the thickness is larger than 16 nm, the UV emission of the ZnO thin film will decrease because the TiO2 capping layer absorbs most of the excitation energy. The UV emission enhancement in the nanocrystalline TiO2 modified ZnO thin film can be attributed to surface passivation and flat band effect.

  15. Microstructure of ZnO Thin Films Deposited by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (Postprint)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-03-01

    AFRL-RX-WP-JA-2015-0185 MICROSTRUCTURE OF ZNO THIN FILMS DEPOSITED BY HIGH POWER IMPULSE MAGNETRON SPUTTERING (POSTPRINT) A. N. Reed...COVERED (From – To) 29 January 2013 – 16 February 2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE MICROSTRUCTURE OF ZNO THIN FILMS DEPOSITED BY HIGH POWER IMPULSE MAGNETRON...ABSTRACT High power impulse magnetron sputtering was used to deposit thin (~100 nm) zinc oxide (ZnO) films from a ceramic ZnO target onto substrates

  16. Nd and Ru co-doped bismuth titanate polycrystalline thin films with improved ferroelectric properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sahoo, Kishor Kumar; Singh Rajput, Shailendra; Gupta, Rajeev; Roy, Amritendu; Garg, Ashish

    2018-02-01

    We report the ferroelectric properties of pulsed laser deposited thin films of Nd and Ru co-doped bismuth titanate (Bi4-x Nd x Ti3-y Ru y O12). Structural analysis of the as-grown films, using x-ray diffraction, showed a single-phase formation with a polycrystalline structure. In comparison to un-doped and Nd-doped films, ferroelectric measurements on co-doped films demonstrated improved properties with remnant polarization (P r) ~ 12.5 µC cm-2 and an enhanced electrical fatigue life for Bi3.25Nd0.75Ti2.8Ru0.20O12 films. The enhancement in remanent polarization is attributed to microscopic changes, such as local structural distortion and the modification of the dynamical/effective charges on constituent ions due to chemical strain upon simultaneous Bi- (A) and Ti- (B) site doping with Nd and Ru, which has a far stronger effect than only A-site doping with Nd. Piezoresponse force microscopy further confirmed the polar structure and domain switching at nanoscale. The films exhibit small yet finite magnetization at 10 K resulting from strain.

  17. Effect of K-doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Linhua; Li, Xiangyin; Yuan, Jun

    2008-09-01

    In this work, K-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by a sol-gel method on Si(111) and glass substrates. The effect of different K-doping concentrations on structural and optical properties of the ZnO thin films was studied. The results showed that the 1 at.% K-doped ZnO thin film had the best crystallization quality and the strongest ultraviolet emission ability. When the concentration of K was above 1 at.%, the crystallization quality and ultraviolet emission ability dropped. For the K-doped ZnO thin films, there was not only ultraviolet emission, but also a blue emission signal in their photoluminescent spectra. The blue emission might be connected with K impurity or/and the intrinsic defects (Zn interstitial and Zn vacancy) of the ZnO thin films.

  18. Co/Cr co-doped MgGa{sub 2}O{sub 4} nanoparticles: Microstructure and optical properties

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Duan, Xiulan, E-mail: xlduan@sdu.edu.cn; Liu, Jian; Yu, Fapeng

    2016-01-15

    Graphical abstract: The Ga 2p{sub 3/2} spectra consist of two peaks, corresponding to Ga{sup 3+} ions placed at octahedral and tetrahedral sites, respectively. The fraction of tetrahedral Ga{sup 3+} ions (∼1117 eV) increases with increasing doping concentration. - Highlights: • Structural and properties of Co{sup 2+}/Cr{sup 3+}: MgGa{sub 2}O{sub 4} nanoparticles were characterized. • The distribution of cations was studied using XPS. • The inversion degree increased with increasing content of doping ions. • The doping concentration has also effect on absorption and emission properties. • Optical properties of nanoparticles were discussed based on the structural results. - Abstract: MgGa{submore » 2}O{sub 4} nanoparticles co-doped with Co{sup 2+}/Cr{sup 3+} ions were prepared by a citrate sol–gel method. Their microstructure and optical properties were studied using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. MgGa{sub 2}O{sub 4} nanoparticles with the size of 10–30 nm were obtained when the precursor was annealed at 800 °C. Results indicated that Ga{sup 3+} and Mg{sup 2+} cations occupied the octahedral sites as well as the tetrahedral sites in samples. The inversion degree of Ga or Mg increased with increasing content of doping ions. Absorption spectra indicated that Co{sup 2+} and Cr{sup 3+} ions entered both the tetrahedral and octahedral sites of spinel structure by substituting Mg{sup 2+} and Ga{sup 3+} ions, respectively. Emission spectra of the co-doped MgGa{sub 2}O{sub 4} showed a broad emission band peaking at 700 and 680 nm, relevant to the emission characteristic of octahedral Cr{sup 3+} and tetrahedral Co{sup 2+} ions.« less

  19. Structural and optical properties of Na-doped ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akcan, D.; Gungor, A.; Arda, L.

    2018-06-01

    Zn1-xNaxO (x = 0.0-0.05) solutions have been synthesized by the sol-gel technique using Zinc acetate dihydrate and Sodium acetate which were dissolved into solvent and chelating agent. Na-doped ZnO nanoparticles were obtained from solutions to find phase and crystal structure. Na-doped ZnO films have been deposited onto glass substrate by using sol-gel dip coating system. The effects of dopant concentration on the structure, morphology, and optical properties of Na-doped ZnO thin films deposited on glass substrate are investigated. Characterization of Zn1-xNaxO nanoparticles and thin films are examined using differential thermal analysis (DTA)/thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray diffractometer (XRD). Optical properties of Zn1-xNaxO thin films were obtained by using PG Instruments UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer in 190-1100 nm range. The structure, morphology, and optical properties of thin films are presented.

  20. Transparent and conducting ZnO films grown by spray pyrolysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hadjeris, Lazhar; Herissi, Labidi; Badreddine Assouar, M.; Easwarakhanthan, Thomas; Bougdira, Jamal; Attaf, Nadhir; Salah Aida, M.

    2009-03-01

    ZnO films were prepared using the simple, flexible and cost-effective spray pyrolysis technique at different substrate temperatures and precursor molarity values. The films' structural, optical and electrical properties were investigated by x-ray diffraction, UV-VIS transmittance spectroscopy, profilometry and voltage-current-temperature (VIT) measurements. The films prepared at substrate temperatures above 400 °C appear better crystallized with (0 0 2) preferred orientation and exhibit higher visible transmittance (65-80%), higher electrical n-type semiconductor conductivity (10-50 (Ω cm)-1), lower activation energy (<0.35 eV) and smaller Urbach energy (80 meV). These results indicate that such sprayed ZnO films are chemically purer and have many fewer defects and less disorder owing to an almost complete chemical decomposition of the precursor droplets. ZnO films having desired optical and electrical properties for cheaper large-area solar cells may thus be tailored through the substrate temperature and the precursor molarity.

  1. 2 inch size Czochralski growth and scintillation properties of Li+ co-doped Ce:Gd3Ga3Al2O12

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kamada, Kei; Shoji, Yasuhiro; Kochurikhin, Vladimir V.; Yoshino, Masao; Okumura, Satoshi; Yamamoto, Seiichi; Yeom, Jung Yeol; Kurosawa, Shunsuke; Yokota, Yuui; Ohashi, Yuji; Nikl, Martin; Yoshino, Masao; Yoshikawa, Akira

    2017-03-01

    The 2 inch size Li 0.15 and 1.35 mol% co-doped Ce:Gd3Al2Ga3O12 single crystals were prepared by the Czochralski (Cz) method. Absorption and luminescence spectra were measured together with several other scintillation characteristics, namely the scintillation decay and light yield to reveal the effect of Li co-doping. Ce4+ CT absorption below 350 nm is clearly enhanced by Li co-doping as same as divalent ions co-doping. By 1.35 at.% Li co-doping, light yield was decrease to 88% of the Ce: GAGG standard and decay time was accelerated to 34.3ns 21.0%, 84.6ns 68.7%, 480ns 10.3%. The timing resolution measurement for a pair of 3 × 3 × 3mm3 size Li,Ce:GAGG scintillator crystals was performed using Si-PMs and the timing resolution of the 1.35 at.% Li co-doped Ce:GAGG was 218ps.

  2. Seedless-grown of ZnO thin films for photoelectrochemical water splitting application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdullah, Aidahani; Hamid, Muhammad Azmi Abdul; Chiu, W. S.

    2018-04-01

    We developed a seedless hydrothermal method to grow a flower like ZnO nanorods. Prior to the growth, a layer of Au thin film is sputtered onto the surface of indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate. The morphological, structural and optical properties of the ZnO nanostructures were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and diffuse reflection measurement to understand the growth process of the working thin film. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) results suggest that the deposition of ZnO nanorods on Au nanoparticles plays an important role in enhancing the photoelectrode activity. H2 evolution from photo-splitting of water over Au-incorporated ZnO in the 0.1M NaOH liquid system was enhanced, compared to that over bare ZnO; particularly, the production of 15.5 µL of H2 gas after twenty five minutes exposure of ZnO grown on Au-coated thin film.

  3. Fabrication of Vertical Organic Light-Emitting Transistor Using ZnO Thin Film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamauchi, Hiroshi; Iizuka, Masaaki; Kudo, Kazuhiro

    2007-04-01

    Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) combined with thin film transistor (TFT) are well suitable elements for low-cost, large-area active matrix displays. On the other hand, zinc oxide (ZnO) is a transparent material and its electrical conductivity is controlled from conductive to insulating by growth conditions. The drain current of ZnO FET is 180 μA. The OLED uses ZnO thin film (Al-doped) for the electron injection layer and is controlled by radio frequency (rf) and direct current (dc) sputtering conditions, such as Al concentration and gas pressure. Al concentration in the ZnO film and deposition rate have strong effects on electron injection. Furthermore, the OLED driven by ZnO FET shows a luminance of 13 cd/m2, a luminance efficiency of 0.7 cd/A, and an on-off ratio of 650.

  4. MOCVD Growth and Characterization of n-type Zinc Oxide Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ben-Yaacov, Tammy

    In the past decade, there has been widespread effort in the development of zinc oxide as a II-V1 semiconductor material. ZnO has potential advantages in optoelectronip device applications due to its unique electrical and optical properties. What stands out among these properties is its wide direct bandgap of 3.37 eV and its high electrical conductivity and transparency in the visible and near-UV regions of the spectrum. ZnO can be grown heteroepitaxially on GaN under near lattice-matched conditions and homoepitaxially as well, as high-quality bulk ZnO substrates are commercially available. This dissertation focuses on the development of the growth of high-quality, single crystal n-type ZnO films, control of n-type conductivity, as well as its application as a transparent contact material in GaN-based devices. The first part of this dissertation is an extensive heteroepitaxial and homoepitaxial growth study presenting the properties of ZnO(0001) layers grown on GaN(0001) templates and ZnO(0001) substrates. We show that deposition on GaN requires a two-step growth technique involving the growth of a low temperature nucleation layer before growing a high temperature epitaxial layer in order to obtain smooth ZnO films with excellent crystal quality and step-flow surface morphology. We obtained homoepitaxial ZnO(0001) films of structural quality and surface morphology that is comparable to the as-received substrates, and showed that a high growth temperature (≥1000°C) is needed in order to achieve step-flow growth mode. We performed n-type doping experiments, and established the conditions for which Indium effectively controls the n-type conductivity of ZnO films grown on GaN(0001) templates. A peak carrier concentration of 3.22x 10 19cm-3 and minimum sheet resistance of 97 O/square was achieved, while simultaneously maintaining good morphology and crystal quality. Finally, we present In-doped ZnO films implemented as p-contacts for GaN-based solar cells and LEDs

  5. Induced conductivity in sol-gel ZnO films by passivation or elimination of Zn vacancies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winarski, D. J.; Anwand, W.; Wagner, A.; Saadatkia, P.; Selim, F. A.; Allen, M.; Wenner, B.; Leedy, K.; Allen, J.; Tetlak, S.; Look, D. C.

    2016-09-01

    Undoped and Ga- and Al- doped ZnO films were synthesized using sol-gel and spin coating methods and characterized by X-ray diffraction, high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical spectroscopy and Hall-effect measurements. SEM measurements reveal an average grain size of 20 nm and distinct individual layer structure. Measurable conductivity was not detected in the unprocessed films; however, annealing in hydrogen or zinc environment induced significant conductivity (˜10-2 Ω .cm) in most films. Positron annihilation spectroscopy measurements provided strong evidence that the significant enhancement in conductivity was due to hydrogen passivation of Zn vacancy related defects or elimination of Zn vacancies by Zn interstitials which suppress their role as deep acceptors. Hydrogen passivation of cation vacancies is shown to play an important role in tuning the electrical conductivity of ZnO, similar to its role in passivation of defects at the Si/SiO2 interface that has been essential for the successful development of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices. By comparison with hydrogen effect on other oxides, we suggest that hydrogen may play a universal role in oxides passivating cation vacancies and modifying their electronic properties.

  6. Nonlinear optical properties of Nd3+-Li+ co-doped ZnS-PVP thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Talwatkar, S. S.; Sunatkari, A. L.; Tamgadge, Y. S.; Muley, G. G.

    2018-04-01

    The nonlinear optical properties of Nd3+-Li+ co-doped ZnS-PVP nanocomposite were studied using a continuous wave (CW) He-Ne laser (λ = 632.8 nm)by z-scan technique. The nonlinear refractive index (n2), absorption coefficient (β) and third order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(3)) of PVP thin films embedded with Nd3+-Li+ co-doped ZnS NPs was found in the order of 10-7 cm2/W, 10-6 cm/W and 10-7 esu respectively. The nonlinearity found increasing with Nd3+-Li+ co-dopant concentration. Based on the results, it is proposed that this material is a new class of luminescent material suitable in optoelectronics devices application, especially in light-emitting devices, electroluminescent devices, display devices, etc.

  7. C-Axis-Oriented Hydroxyapatite Film Grown Using ZnO Buffer Layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sakoishi, Yasuhiro; Iguchi, Ryo; Nishikawa, Hiroaki; Hontsu, Shigeki; Hayami, Takashi; Kusunoki, Masanobu

    2013-11-01

    A method of fabricating c-axis-oriented hydroxyapatite film on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor was investigated. ZnO was used as a template to obtain a hexagonal hydroxyapatite crystal of uniaxial orientation. The ZnO was grown as a c-axis film on a Au/quartz with the surface structure of a QCM sensor. Under optimized conditions, hydroxyapatite was deposited by pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction showed the hydroxyapatite film to be oriented along the c-axis. Because Au and ZnO are applied to many devices, the anisotropic properties of hydroxyapatite may be incorporated into these devices as well as QCM sensors.

  8. Optimization of pulsed laser deposited ZnO thin-film growth parameters for thin-film transistors (TFT) application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gupta, Manisha; Chowdhury, Fatema Rezwana; Barlage, Douglas; Tsui, Ying Yin

    2013-03-01

    In this work we present the optimization of zinc oxide (ZnO) film properties for a thin-film transistor (TFT) application. Thin films, 50±10 nm, of ZnO were deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) under a variety of growth conditions. The oxygen pressure, laser fluence, substrate temperature and annealing conditions were varied as a part of this study. Mobility and carrier concentration were the focus of the optimization. While room-temperature ZnO growths followed by air and oxygen annealing showed improvement in the (002) phase formation with a carrier concentration in the order of 1017-1018/cm3 with low mobility in the range of 0.01-0.1 cm2/V s, a Hall mobility of 8 cm2/V s and a carrier concentration of 5×1014/cm3 have been achieved on a relatively low temperature growth (250 °C) of ZnO. The low carrier concentration indicates that the number of defects have been reduced by a magnitude of nearly a 1000 as compared to the room-temperature annealed growths. Also, it was very clearly seen that for the (002) oriented films of ZnO a high mobility film is achieved.

  9. Nanostructured ZnO films on stainless steel are highly safe and effective for antimicrobial applications.

    PubMed

    Shim, Kyudae; Abdellatif, Mohamed; Choi, Eunsoo; Kim, Dongkyun

    2017-04-01

    The safety and effectiveness of antimicrobial ZnO films must be established for general applications. In this study, the antimicrobial activity, skin irritation, elution behavior, and mechanical properties of nanostructured ZnO films on stainless steel were evaluated. ZnO nanoparticle (NP) and ZnO nanowall (NW) structures were prepared with different surface roughnesses, wettability, and concentrations using an RF magnetron sputtering system. The thicknesses of ZnO NP and ZnO NW were approximately 300 and 620 nm, respectively, and ZnO NW had two diffraction directions of [0002] and [01-10] based on high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The ZnO NW structure demonstrated 99.9% antimicrobial inhibition against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Penicillium funiculosum, and no skin irritation was detected using experimental rabbits. Approximately 27.2 ± 3.0 μg L -1 Zn ions were eluted from the ZnO NW film at 100 °C for 24 h, which satisfies the WHO guidelines for drinking water quality. Furthermore, the Vickers hardness and fracture toughness of ZnO NW films on stainless steel were enhanced by 11 and 14% compared to those of the parent stainless steel. Based on these results, ZnO NW films on STS316L sheets are useful for household supplies, such as water pipes, faucets, and stainless steel containers.

  10. Comparative study of ZnO nanorods and thin films for chemical and biosensing applications and the development of ZnO nanorods based potentiometric strontium ion sensor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khun, K.; Ibupoto, Z. H.; Chey, C. O.; Lu, Jun.; Nur, O.; Willander, M.

    2013-03-01

    In this study, the comparative study of ZnO nanorods and ZnO thin films were performed regarding the chemical and biosensing properties and also ZnO nanorods based strontium ion sensor is proposed. ZnO nanorods were grown on gold coated glass substrates by the hydrothermal growth method and the ZnO thin films were deposited by electro deposition technique. ZnO nanorods and thin films were characterised by field emission electron microscopy [FESEM] and X-ray diffraction [XRD] techniques and this study has shown that the grown nanostructures are highly dense, uniform and exhibited good crystal quality. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy [TEM] was used to investigate the quality of ZnO thin film and we observed that ZnO thin film was comprised of nano clusters. ZnO nanorods and thin films were functionalised with selective strontium ionophore salicylaldehyde thiosemicarbazone [ST] membrane, galactose oxidase, and lactate oxidase for the detection of strontium ion, galactose and L-lactic acid, respectively. The electrochemical response of both ZnO nanorods and thin films sensor devices was measured by using the potentiometric method. The strontium ion sensor has exhibited good characteristics with a sensitivity of 28.65 ± 0.52 mV/decade, for a wide range of concentrations from 1.00 × 10-6 to 5.00 × 10-2 M, selectivity, reproducibility, stability and fast response time of 10.00 s. The proposed strontium ion sensor was used as indicator electrode in the potentiometric titration of strontium ion versus ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid [EDTA]. This comparative study has shown that ZnO nanorods possessed better performance with high sensitivity and low limit of detection due to high surface area to volume ratio as compared to the flat surface of ZnO thin films.

  11. Effect of N2 flow during deposition on p-type ZnO film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Chiung-Wei; Liu, Bor-Chang

    2017-01-01

    In this study, the influence of a nitrogen source on p-type conductive ZnO films was studied. Rapid thermal oxidation was conducted to oxidize ZnN films and convert them to ZnO films. When an as-deposited ZnN film was prepared at a high nitrogen gas flow rate, the converted ZnO film possessed many acceptors and showed stable p-type conduction. This p-type conduction was attributed to the nitrogen gas flow providing many “No” states, which act as acceptors within the processed ZnO film. It was found that the as-deposited ZnN film prepared at a high nitrogen gas flow rate is oxidized slightly so that only a few nitrogen atoms were replaced by oxygen. The carrier concentration and mobility of the optimized oxidized ZnN film were 9.76 × 1017 cm-3 and 62.78 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. A good rectified current-voltage characteristic with a turn-on voltage of 3.65 V was achieved for the optimized ZnO:N/ZnO junction.

  12. Single and couple doping ZnO nanocrystals characterized by positron techniques

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pasang, Tenzin; Namratha, Keerthiraj; Guagliardo, Paul; Byrappa, Kullaiah; Ranganathaiah, Chikkakuntappa; Samarin, S.; Williams, J. F.

    2015-04-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystals have been synthesized using a mild hydrothermal process using low temperatures and pressures with the advantages of free growth catalyst, low cost and alternative technology. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy and coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) spectroscopic methods have been used to investigate the roles of single- and co-dopants and native defects of the ZnO nanocrystals controlled by the synthesis process. It is shown that single Ag1+ and Pd2+ dopants occupy interstitial sites of the ZnO lattice and single Ru3+ doping replaces Zn vacancies substitutionally with a significant effect on the CDB momentum ratio curves when compared using ZnO as the reference spectrum. The co-doping of the ZnO lattice with (Sn4+ + Co2+) shows similar CDB ratios as Ru3+ single-doping. Also co-doping with (Ag1+ + Pd2+) or (Ag1+ + W6+) shows significant decreases in the band gap energy up to about 12.6% compared to single doping. The momentum ratio curves, referenced to undoped ZnO, indicate dopants in interstitial and substitutional sites. The presence of transition metal ions interstitially will trap electrons which resist the recombination of electrons and in turn affect the conductivity of the material.

  13. Performance improvement for solution-processed high-mobility ZnO thin-film transistors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sha Li, Chen; Li, Yu Ning; Wu, Yi Liang; Ong, Beng S.; Loutfy, Rafik O.

    2008-06-01

    The fabrication technology of stable, non-toxic, transparent, high performance zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film semiconductors via the solution process was investigated. Two methods, which were, respectively, annealing a spin-coated precursor solution and annealing a drop-coated precursor solution, were compared. The prepared ZnO thin-film semiconductor transistors have well-controlled, preferential crystal orientation and exhibit superior field-effect performance characteristics. But the ZnO thin-film transistor (TFT) fabricated by annealing a drop-coated precursor solution has a distinctly elevated linear mobility, which further approaches the saturated mobility, compared with that fabricated by annealing a spin-coated precursor solution. The performance of the solution-processed ZnO TFT was further improved when substituting the spin-coating process by the drop-coating process.

  14. Cr2O3-modified ZnO thick film resistors as LPG sensors.

    PubMed

    Patil, D R; Patil, L A

    2009-02-15

    Thick films of pure ZnO were obtained by screen-printing technique. Surface functionalized ZnO thick films by Cr(2)O(3) were obtained by dipping pure ZnO thick films into 0.01M aqueous solution of chromium trioxide (CrO(3)). The dipped films were fired at 500 degrees C for 30 min. Upon firing, the CrO(3) would reduce to Cr(2)O(3). Cr(2)O(3)-activated (0.47 mass%) ZnO thick films resulted in LPG sensor. Upon exposure to 100 ppm LPG, the barrier height between Cr(2)O(3) and ZnO grains decreases markedly, leading to a drastic decrease in resistance. The sensor was found to sense LPG at 350 degrees C and no cross sensitivity was observed to other hazardous, polluting and inflammable gases. The quick response ( approximately 18s) and fast recovery ( approximately 42s) are the main features of this sensor. The effects of microstructures and dopant concentrations on the gas sensing performance of the sensor were studied and discussed.

  15. Ferroelectric enhancement in heterostructured ZnO /BiFeO3-PbTiO3 film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Shengwen; Chen, Rui; Zhang, Guanjun; Cheng, Jinrong; Meng, Zhongyan

    2006-11-01

    The authors have prepared heterostructured ZnO /BiFeO3-PbTiO3 (BFO-PT) composite film and BFO-PT film on Pt /Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. The structure and morphologies of the films were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope. XRD results show that both films are perovskite structured last with different orientations. The leakage current density in the ZnO /BFO-PT film was found to be nearly two orders of magnitude lower. This could be due to the introduced ZnO layer behaving as a Schottky barrier between the BFO-PT film and top electrodes. The dramatic ferroelectric enhancement in ZnO /BFO-PT film is mostly ascribed to the improved insulation.

  16. Effect of morphology evolution on the thermoelectric properties of oxidized ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Shiying; Li, Guojian; Xiao, Lin; Jia, Baohai; Gao, Yang; Wang, Qiang

    2018-04-01

    The effects of nanowire content on the thermoelectric properties of ZnO films were investigated. The nanowire content of ZnO films was tuned by thermal oxidation of evaporated Zn films. The results showed that hexagonal and polyhedral morphologies on the surface of Zn films can be used to tune the nanowire content of ZnO films. Hexagonal nanoplates with a diameter of 100-350 nm readily grew ZnO nanowires with c-axis preferential orientation. Conversely, it was difficult to grow nanowires on polyhedral nanoparticles with diameters of 500-750 nm because the meeting of ZnO (101) and (001) facets suppressed nanowire growth. Thermoelectric parameters were strongly affected by nanowire content. In particular, carrier concentration increased with nanowire content. Carrier mobility also increased with nanowire content because the nanowires behaved as channels for electronic migration. The band gap of the films narrowed with increasing nanowire content because the binding energy of O 1s electrons with oxygen vacancies decreased. The maximum power factor of the film with high nanowire content (8.80 μW/m K2 at 530 K) was approximately 300% higher than that of the film with low nanowire content.

  17. Thickness dependence of crystal and optical characterization on ZnO thin film grown by atomic layer deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baek, Seung-Hye; Lee, Hyun-Jin; Lee, Sung-Nam

    2018-06-01

    We studied the thickness dependence of the crystallographic and optical properties of ZnO thin films grown on c-plane sapphire substrate using atomic layer deposition. High-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) revealed two peaks at 34.5° and 36.2° in the initial growth stage of ZnO on the sapphire substrate, corresponding to the (002) and (101) ZnO planes, respectively. However, as the thickness of the ZnO film increased, the XRD intensity of the (002) ZnO peak increased drastically, compared with that of the (101) ZnO peak. This indicated that (002) and (101) ZnO were simultaneously grown on the c-plane sapphire substrate in the initial growth stage, and that (002) ZnO was predominantly grown with the increase in the thickness of ZnO film. The ZnO thin film presented an anisotropic surface structure at the initial stage, whereas the isotropic surface morphology was developed with an increase in the film thickness of ZnO. These observations were consistent with the HR-XRD results.

  18. Defect studies of thin ZnO films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vlček, M.; Čížek, J.; Procházka, I.; Novotný, M.; Bulíř, J.; Lančok, J.; Anwand, W.; Brauer, G.; Mosnier, J.-P.

    2014-04-01

    Thin ZnO films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on four different substrates: sapphire (0 0 0 1), MgO (1 0 0), fused silica and nanocrystalline synthetic diamond. Defect studies by slow positron implantation spectroscopy (SPIS) revealed significantly higher concentration of defects in the studied films when compared to a bulk ZnO single crystal. The concentration of defects in the films deposited on single crystal sapphire and MgO substrates is higher than in the films deposited on amorphous fused silica substrate and nanocrystalline synthetic diamond. Furthermore, the effect of deposition temperature on film quality was investigated in ZnO films deposited on synthetic diamond substrates. Defect studies performed by SPIS revealed that the concentration of defects firstly decreases with increasing deposition temperature, but at too high deposition temperatures it increases again. The lowest concentration of defects was found in the film deposited at 450° C.

  19. Nucleant layer effect on nanocolumnar ZnO films grown by electrodeposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tolosa, Maria D. Reyes; Damonte, Laura C.; Brine, Hicham; Bolink, Henk J.; Hernández-Fenollosa, María A.

    2013-03-01

    Different ZnO nanostructured films were electrochemically grown, using an aqueous solution based on ZnCl2, on three types of transparent conductive oxides grow on commercial ITO (In2O3:Sn)-covered glass substrates: (1) ZnO prepared by spin coating, (2) ZnO prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering, and (3) commercial ITO-covered glass substrates. Although thin, these primary oxide layers play an important role on the properties of the nanostructured films grown on top of them. Additionally, these primary oxide layers prevent direct hole combination when used in optoelectronic devices. Structural and optical characterizations were carried out by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical transmission spectroscopy. We show that the properties of the ZnO nanostructured films depend strongly on the type of primary oxide-covered substrate used. Previous studies on different electrodeposition methods for nucleation and growth are considered in the final discussion.

  20. Nucleant layer effect on nanocolumnar ZnO films grown by electrodeposition.

    PubMed

    Tolosa, Maria D Reyes; Damonte, Laura C; Brine, Hicham; Bolink, Henk J; Hernández-Fenollosa, María A

    2013-03-23

    Different ZnO nanostructured films were electrochemically grown, using an aqueous solution based on ZnCl2, on three types of transparent conductive oxides grow on commercial ITO (In2O3:Sn)-covered glass substrates: (1) ZnO prepared by spin coating, (2) ZnO prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering, and (3) commercial ITO-covered glass substrates. Although thin, these primary oxide layers play an important role on the properties of the nanostructured films grown on top of them. Additionally, these primary oxide layers prevent direct hole combination when used in optoelectronic devices. Structural and optical characterizations were carried out by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical transmission spectroscopy. We show that the properties of the ZnO nanostructured films depend strongly on the type of primary oxide-covered substrate used. Previous studies on different electrodeposition methods for nucleation and growth are considered in the final discussion.

  1. Effect of ZnO buffer layer on phase transition properties of vanadium dioxide thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Huiqun; Li, Lekang; Li, Chunbo

    2016-03-01

    VO2 thin films were prepared on ZnO buffer layers by DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature using vanadium target and post annealing at 400 °C. The ZnO buffer layers with different thickness deposited on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering have a high visible and near infrared optical transmittance. The electrical resistivity and the phase transition properties of the VO2/ZnO composite thin films in terms of temperature were investigated. The results showed that the resistivity variation of VO2 thin film with ZnO buffer layer deposited for 35 min was 16 KΩ-cm. The VO2/ZnO composite thin films exhibit a reversible semiconductor-metal phase transition at 48 °C.

  2. Slow positron beam study of hydrogen ion implanted ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Yi; Xue, Xudong; Wu, Yichu

    2014-08-01

    The effects of hydrogen related defect on the microstructure and optical property of ZnO thin films were investigated by slow positron beam, in combination with x-ray diffraction, infrared and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The defects were introduced by 90 keV proton irradiation with doses of 1×1015 and 1×1016 ions cm-2. Zn vacancy and OH bonding (VZn+OH) defect complex were identified in hydrogen implanted ZnO film by positron annihilation and infrared spectroscopy. The formation of these complexes led to lattice disorder in hydrogen implanted ZnO film and suppressed the luminescence process.

  3. Effect of (Mn,Cr) co-doping on structural, electronic and magnetic properties of zinc oxide by first-principles studies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aimouch, D. E.; Meskine, S.; Boukortt, A.; Zaoui, A.

    2018-04-01

    In this study, structural, electronic and magnetic properties of Mn doped (ZnO:Mn) and (Mn,Cr) co-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:(Mn,Cr)) have been calculated with the FP-LAPW method by using the LSDA and LSDA+U approximations. Going through three configurations of Mn,Cr co-doped ZnO corresponding to three different distances between manganese and chromium, we have analyzed that ZnO:(Mn,Cr) system is more stable in its preferred configuration2. The lattice constant of undoped ZnO that has been calculated in this study is in a good agreement with the experimental and theoretical values. It was found to be increased by doping with Mn or (Mn,Cr) impurities. The band structure calculations showed the metallic character of Mn doped and Mn,Cr co-doped ZnO. As results, by using LSDA+U (U = 6eV), we show the half-metallic character of ZnO:Mn and ZnO:Mn,Cr. We present the calculated exchange couplings d-d of Mn doped ZnO which is in a good agreement with the former FPLO calculation data and the magnetization step measurement of the experimental work. The magnetic coupling between neighboring Mn impurities in ZnO is found to be antiferromagnetic. In the case of (Mn,Cr) co-doped ZnO, the magnetic coupling between Mn and Cr impurities is found to be antiferromagnetic for configuration1 and 3, and ferromagnetic for configuration2. Thus, the ferromagnetic coupling is weak in ZnO:Mn. Chromium co-doping greatly enhance the ferromagnetism, especially when using configuration2. At last, we present the 2D and 3D spin-density distribution of ZnO:Mn and ZnO:(Mn,Cr) where the ferromagnetic state in ZnO:(Mn,Cr) comes from the strong p-d and d-d interactions between 2p-O, 3d-Mn and 3d-Cr electrons. The results of our calculations suggest that the co-doping ZnO(Mn, Cr) can be among DMS behavior for spintronic applications.

  4. Li diffusion in epitaxial (11 $bar 2$ 0) ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, P.; Zhong, J.; Emanetoglu, N. W.; Chen, Y.; Muthukumar, S.; Lu, Y.

    2004-06-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) possesses many interesting properties, such as a wide energy bandgap, large photoconductivity, and high excitonic binding energy. Chemical-vapor-deposition-grown ZnO films generally show n-type conductivity. A compensation doping process is needed to achieve piezoelectric ZnO, which is needed for surface acoustic wave (SAW), bulk acoustic wave, and micro-electromechanical system devices. In this work, a gas-phase diffusion process is developed to achieve piezoelectric (11bar 20) ZnO films. Comparative x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements confirmed that high crystal quality and good surface morphology were preserved after diffusion. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements show a broad band emission with a peak wavelength at ˜580 nm, which is associated with Li doping. The SAW, including both Rayleigh-wave and Love-wave modes, is achieved along different directions in piezoelectric (11bar 20) ZnO films grown on an r-plane sapphire substrate.

  5. Manipulation of ZnO composition affecting electrical properties of MEH-PPV: ZnO nanocomposite thin film via spin coating for OLEDs application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Azhar, N. E. A.; Shariffudin, S. S.; Alrokayan, Salman A. H.; Khan, Haseeb A.; Rusop, M.

    2018-05-01

    Recent investigations of the promising materials for optoelectronic have been demonstrated by introducing n-type inorganic material into conjugated polymer. Morphology, optical and electrical of nanocomposites thin films based on poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanotetrapods with various ZnO composition (0 wt% to 0.4 wt%) have been investigated. The MEH-PPV: ZnO nanocomposite thin film was deposited using spin-coating method. Surface morphology was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy and shows the uniform dispersion of MEH-PPV and ZnO phases for sample deposited at 0.2 wt%. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra shows the visible emission intensities increased when the ZnO composition increased. The current-voltage (I-V) measurement shows the highest conductivity of nanocomposite thin film deposited at 0.2 wt% of ZnO is 7.40 × 10-1 S. cm-1. This study will provide better performance and suitable for optoelectronic device especially OLEDs application.

  6. Effect of Al doping on performance of ZnO thin film transistors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dong, Junchen; Han, Dedong; Li, Huijin; Yu, Wen; Zhang, Shendong; Zhang, Xing; Wang, Yi

    2018-03-01

    In this work, we investigate the Aluminum-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) thin films and their feasibility as the active layer for thin film transistors (TFTs). A comparison on performance is made between the AZO TFTs and ZnO TFTs. The electrical properties such as saturation mobility, subthreshold swing, and on-to-off current ratio are improved when AZO is utilized as the active layer. Oxygen component of the thin film materials indicates that Al is the suppressor for oxygen defect in active layer, which improves the subthreshold swing. Moreover, based on band structure analyzation, we observe that the carrier concentration of AZO is higher than ZnO, leading to the enhancement of saturation mobility. The microstructure of the thin films convey that the AZO films exhibit much smaller grain boundaries than ZnO films, which results in the lower off-state current and higher on-to-off current ratio of AZO TFTs. The AZO thin films show huge potential to be the active layer of TFTs.

  7. Cu-Doped ZnO Thin Films Grown by Co-deposition Using Pulsed Laser Deposition for ZnO and Radio Frequency Sputtering for Cu

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shin, Hyun Wook; Son, Jong Yeog

    2018-05-01

    Cu-doped ZnO (CZO) thin films were fabricated on single-crystalline (0001) Al2O3 substrates by co-deposition using pulsed laser deposition for ZnO and radio frequency sputtering for Cu. CZO thin films with 0-20% molar concentrations are obtained by adjusting the deposition rates of ZnO and Cu. The CZO thin films exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism, and CZO with 5% Cu molar concentration has maximum remanent magnetization, which is consistent with theoretical results.

  8. Residual stress and bending strength of ZnO films deposited on polyimide sheet by RF sputtering system

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kusaka, Kazuya, E-mail: kusaka@tokushima-u.ac.jp; Maruoka, Yutaka, E-mail: ymaruoka1116@gmail.com; Matsue, Tatsuya, E-mail: tmatsue@mat.niihama-nct.ac.jp

    2016-05-15

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited on a soft polyimide sheet substrate by radio frequency sputtering with a ZnO powder target, and the films' crystal orientations and residual stress were investigated using x-ray diffraction as a function of substrate temperature. C-axis oriented ZnO films were achieved using this ZnO powder target method. The ZnO films exhibited high compressive residual stresses between −0.7 and −1.4 GPa. Finally, the authors examined the strength of the obtained film by applying tensile bending loads. No cracks were observed on the surfaces of the ZnO films after a bending test using cylinders with diameters >25 mm. Aftermore » a bending test using a cylinder with a diameter of 19 mm, large cracks were formed on the films. Therefore, the authors concluded that the tensile bending strength of the obtained films was greater than ∼420 MPa.« less

  9. Nucleant layer effect on nanocolumnar ZnO films grown by electrodeposition

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Different ZnO nanostructured films were electrochemically grown, using an aqueous solution based on ZnCl2, on three types of transparent conductive oxides grow on commercial ITO (In2O3:Sn)-covered glass substrates: (1) ZnO prepared by spin coating, (2) ZnO prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering, and (3) commercial ITO-covered glass substrates. Although thin, these primary oxide layers play an important role on the properties of the nanostructured films grown on top of them. Additionally, these primary oxide layers prevent direct hole combination when used in optoelectronic devices. Structural and optical characterizations were carried out by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical transmission spectroscopy. We show that the properties of the ZnO nanostructured films depend strongly on the type of primary oxide-covered substrate used. Previous studies on different electrodeposition methods for nucleation and growth are considered in the final discussion. PMID:23522332

  10. Experimental and theoretical investigations on magnetic behavior of (Al,Co) co-doped ZnO nanoparticles.

    PubMed

    Jayakumar, O D; Achary, S N; Sudakar, C; Naik, R; Salunke, H G; Rao, Rekha; Peng, X; Ahuja, R; Tyagi, A K

    2010-08-01

    We present the structural and magnetic properties of Zn(0.95-x)Co(0.05)Al(x)O (x = 0.0 to 0.1) nanoparticles, synthesized by a novel sol-gel route followed by pyrolysis. Powder X-ray diffraction data confirms the formation of a single phase wurtzite type ZnO structure for all the compositions. The Zn(0.95)Co(0.05)O nanoparticles show diamagnetic behavior at room temperature. However, when Al is co-doped with Co with x = 0.0 to 0.10 in Zn(0.95-x)Co(0.05)Al(x)O, a systematic increase in ferromagnetic moment is observed up to x = 0.07 at 300 K. Above x = 0.07 (e.g. for x = 0.10) a drastic decrease in ferromagnetic nature is observed which is concomitant with the segregation of poorly crystalline Al rich ZnO phase as evidenced from TEM studies. Theoretical studies using density functional calculations on Zn(0.95-x)Co(0.05)Al(x)O suggest that the partial occupancy of S2 states leads to an increased double exchange interaction favoring the ferromagnetic ground states. Such ferromagnetic interactions are favorable beyond a threshold limit. At a high level doping of Al, the exchange splitting is reduced, which suppresses the ferromagnetic ordering.

  11. Role of Ni doping on transport properties of ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Dar, Tanveer Ahmad, E-mail: tanveerphysics@gmail.com; Agrawal, Arpana; Sen, Pratima

    2015-06-24

    Nickel doped (Ni=0.05) and undoped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films have been prepared by Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The structural analysis of the films was done by X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies which reveal absence of any secondary phase in the prepared samples. UV transmission spectra show that Ni doping reduces the transparency of the films. X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) also shows the presence of metallic Ni along with +2 oxidation state in the sample. Low temperature magneto transport properties of the ZnO and NiZnO films are also discussed in view of Khosla fisher model. Ni doping in ZnO resultsmore » in decrease in magnitude of negative MR.« less

  12. Determination of the absolute internal quantum efficiency of photoluminescence in GaN co-doped with Si and Zn

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reshchikov, M. A.; Foussekis, M.; McNamara, J. D.; Behrends, A.; Bakin, A.; Waag, A.

    2012-04-01

    The optical properties of high-quality GaN co-doped with silicon and zinc are investigated by using temperature-dependent continuous-wave and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. The blue luminescence band is related to the ZnGa acceptor in GaN:Si,Zn, which exhibits an exceptionally high absolute internal quantum efficiency (IQE). An IQE above 90% was calculated for several samples having different concentrations of Zn. Accurate and reliable values of the IQE were obtained by using several approaches based on rate equations. The concentrations of the ZnGa acceptors and free electrons were also estimated from the photoluminescence measurements.

  13. Growth of ZnO films in sol-gel electrophoretic deposition by different solvents

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hallajzadeh, Amir Mohammad; Abdizadeh, Hossein; Taheri, Mahtab; Golobostanfard, Mohammad Reza

    2018-01-01

    This article introduces a process to fabricate zinc oxide (ZnO) films through combining sol preparation and electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The experimental results have proved that the EPD process is a powerful route to fabricate ZnO films with desire thickness from stable colloidal suspension under a direct current (DC) electric field. In this method, ZnO sol is prepared by dissolving zinc acetate dehydrate (ZAD) as the main precursor and diethanolamine (DEA) as the additive in various solvents such as methanol (MeOH), ethanol (EtOH), and 2-proponal (2-PrOH). The deposition was performed under a constant voltage of 30 V for 2 min. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) were used to characterize ZnO films. XRD pattern of the ZnO film prepared by MeOH shows the highest degree of preferential orientation and this is mainly attributed to the higher dielectric constant of the MeOH which results in higher current density in electrophoretic deposit ion. The SEM cross section images also show that the thickness of the ZnO film enhances by decreasing the solvent chain length. According to SEM results, as the viscosity of the medium increased, more compact layers are formed, which can be attributed to the lower deposition rates in heavier alcohols.

  14. Thermal-induced structural and optical investigations of Agsbnd ZnO nanocomposite thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, S. K.; Singhal, R.

    2018-07-01

    In the present paper, we have successfully synthesized Agsbnd ZnO nanocomposite thin films by RF-magnetron sputtering technique at room temperature. Systematic investigations of thermal-induced structural and optical modifications in Agsbnd ZnO thin films have been observed and described. The Agsbnd ZnO thin films were annealed at three different temperatures of 300 °C, 400 °C and 500 °C in vacuum to prevent the oxidation of Ag. The presence and formation of Ag nanoparticles were estimated by transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the structural information about the crystalline quality of ZnO. The crystallinity as well as the crystallite size of the films have been found to be improved with annealing temperatures. The estimated crystallite size was ∼15.8 nm for as-deposited film and 19.0 nm for the film at a higher temperature. The chemical composition and structural analysis of as-deposited film were carried out by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A very sharp absorption band appeared at ∼540 nm for Ag NPs that is associated with the surface plasmon resonance band of Ag. A noticeable red shift of about ∼12 nm has been recorded for films annealed at 500 °C. Atomic force microscopy has been utilized to examine the surface morphology of the as-deposited and annealed films. The grain size was found to be increase with increasing annealing temperature, while no significant changes were observed in the roughness of Agsbnd ZnO thin films. Raman spectroscopy revealed lattice defects and disordering in the films after the thermal annealing.

  15. Structural characterization of ZnO thin films grown on various substrates by pulsed laser deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Novotný, M.; Čížek, J.; Kužel, R.; Bulíř, J.; Lančok, J.; Connolly, J.; McCarthy, E.; Krishnamurthy, S.; Mosnier, J.-P.; Anwand, W.; Brauer, G.

    2012-06-01

    ZnO thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on three different substrates: sapphire (0 0 0 1), MgO (1 0 0) and fused silica (FS). The structure and morphology of the films were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy and defect studies were carried out using slow positron implantation spectroscopy (SPIS). Films deposited on all substrates studied in this work exhibit the wurtzite ZnO structure and are characterized by an average crystallite size of 20-100 nm. However, strong differences in the microstructure of films deposited on various substrates were found. The ZnO films deposited on MgO and sapphire single-crystalline substrates exhibit local epitaxy, i.e. a well-defined relation between film crystallites and the substrate. Domains with different orientation relationships with the substrate were found in both films. On the other hand, the film deposited on the FS substrate exhibits fibre texture with random lateral orientation of crystallites. Extremely high compressive in-plane stress of σ ˜ 14 GPa was determined in the film deposited on the MgO substrate, while the film deposited on sapphire is virtually stress-free, and the film deposited on the FS substrate exhibits a tensile in-plane stress of σ ˜ 0.9 GPa. SPIS investigations revealed that the concentration of open-volume defects in the ZnO films is substantially higher than that in a bulk ZnO single crystal. Moreover, the ZnO films deposited on MgO and sapphire single-crystalline substrates exhibit a significantly higher density of defects than the film deposited on the amorphous FS substrate.

  16. SHI irradiation effect on pure and Mn doped ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khawal, H. A.; Raskar, N. D.; Dole, B. N.

    2017-05-01

    Investigated the structural, surface, electrical and modifications induced by Swift Heavy Ions (SHI) irradiation on pure and Mn substituted ZnO thin films were observed. Thin films of Zn1-xMnxO (x = 0.00, 0.04) were synthesized using the dip coating technique. All thin films irradiated by Li3+ swift heavy ions with fluence 5 × 1013 ions/cm2. The XRD peak reveals that all the samples exhibit wurtzite structures. Surface morphology of samples was investigated by SEM, it was observed that pristine samples of ZnO thin film shows spherical shape but for 4 % Mn substituted ZnO thin film with 5 × 1013 ions/cm2 fluence, it reveals that big grain spherical morphology like structure respectively. I-V characteristics were recorded in the voltage range -5 to 5 V. All curves were passed through origin and nearly linear exhibit ohmic in nature for the films.

  17. Highly textured and transparent RF sputtered Eu2O3 doped ZnO films

    PubMed Central

    Sreedharan, Remadevi Sreeja; Ganesan, Vedachalaiyer; Sudarsanakumar, Chellappan Pillai; Bhavsar, Kaushalkumar; Prabhu, Radhakrishna; Mahadevan Pillai, Vellara Pappukutty Pillai

    2015-01-01

    Background Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a wide, direct band gap II-VI oxide semiconductor. ZnO has large exciton binding energy at room temperature, and it is a good host material for obtaining visible and infrared emission of various rare-earth ions. Methods Europium oxide (Eu2O3) doped ZnO films are prepared on quartz substrate using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering with doping concentrations 0, 0.5, 1, 3 and 5 wt%. The films are annealed in air at a temperature of 773 K for 2 hours. The annealed films are characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, ultraviolet (UV)-visible spectroscopy and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Results XRD patterns show that the films are highly c-axis oriented exhibiting hexagonalwurtzite structure of ZnO. Particle size calculations using Debye-Scherrer formula show that average crystalline size is in the range 15–22 nm showing the nanostructured nature of the films. The observation of low- and high-frequency E2 modes in the Raman spectra supports the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO in the films. The surface morphology of the Eu2O3 doped films presents dense distribution of grains. The films show good transparency in the visible region. The band gaps of the films are evaluated using Tauc plot model. Optical constants such as refractive index, dielectric constant, loss factor, and so on are calculated using the transmittance data. The PL spectra show both UV and visible emissions. Conclusion Highly textured, transparent, luminescent Eu2O3 doped ZnO films have been synthesized using RF magnetron sputtering. The good optical and structural properties and intense luminescence in the ultraviolet and visible regions from the films suggest their suitability for optoelectronic applications. PMID:25765728

  18. Codoping method for the fabrication of low-resistivity wide band-gap semiconductors in p-type GaN, p-type AlN and n-type diamond: prediction versus experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katayama-Yoshida, H.; Nishimatsu, T.; Yamamoto, T.; Orita, N.

    2001-10-01

    We review our new valence control method of a co-doping for the fabrication of low-resistivity p-type GaN, p-type AlN and n-type diamond. The co-doping method is proposed based upon ab initio electronic structure calculation in order to solve the uni-polarity and the compensation problems in the wide band-gap semiconductors. In the co-doping method, we dope both the acceptors and donors at the same time by forming the meta-stable acceptor-donor-acceptor complexes for the p-type or donor-acceptor-donor complexes for the n-type under thermal non-equilibrium crystal growth conditions. We propose the following co-doping method to fabricate the low-resistivity wide band-gap semiconductors; p-type GaN: [Si + 2 Mg (or Be)], [H + 2 Mg (or Be)], [O + 2 Mg (or Be)], p-type AlN: [O + 2 C] and n-type diamond: [B + 2 N], [H + S], [H + 2 P]. We compare our prediction of the co-doping method with the recent successful experiments to fabricate the low-resistivity p-type GaN, p-type AlN and n-type diamond. We show that the co-doping method is the efficient and universal doping method by which to avoid carrier compensation with an increase of the solubility of the dopant, to increase the activation rate by decreasing the ionization energy of acceptors and donors, and to increase the mobility of the carrier.

  19. Effects of ZnO nanoparticle-coated packaging film on pork meat quality during cold storage.

    PubMed

    Suo, Biao; Li, Huarong; Wang, Yuexia; Li, Zhen; Pan, Zhili; Ai, Zhilu

    2017-05-01

    There has been limited research on the use of ZnO nanoparticle-coated film for the quality preservation of pork meat under low temperature. In the present study, ZnO nanoparticles were mixed with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na) to form a nanocomposite film, to investigate the effect of ZnO nanoparticle-coated film on pork meat quality and the growth of bacteria during storage under low temperature. When ZnO nanoparticle-coated film was used as the packaging material for pork meat for 14 days of cold storage at 4 °C, the results demonstrated a significant effect on restricting the increases in total volatile basic nitrogen and pH levels, limiting the decreases of lightness (increased L* value) and redness (increased a* value), and maintaining the water-holding capacity compared to the control pork samples (P < 0.05). The present study also discovered that the ZnO nanoparticle-coated film restrained the increase in total plate count (TPC). When Staphylococcus aureus was used as the representative strain, scanning electron microscopy revealed that ZnO nanoparticles increased the occurrence of cell membrane rupture under cold conditions. ZnO nanoparticle-coated film helps retain the quality of pork meat during cold storage by increasing the occurrence of microorganism injury. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

  20. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mezdrogina, M. M., E-mail: Margaret.m@mail.ioffe.ru; Vinogradov, A. Ya.; Kuzmin, R. V.

    For ZnO films, nanorods, and bulk single crystals doped with Er{sup +} ions, it is shown that the effect of codopants introduced into the cation and ion sublattices and the observation of a high-intensity emission band at the wavelength λ{sub max} = 1535 nm are defined by the local environment of the Er{sup +} ion. Doping of the films and single crystals with Er{sup +} ions by diffusion brings about an infrared (IR) emission band with a low intensity because of an inadequate concentration of impurity ions. The emission intensity of this band can be raised by introducing additional Ag,more » Au, or N{sup +} impurities into the ZnO films. The UV-emission intensity of the Er-doped films and single crystals at λ{sub max} = 368–372 nm is identical to that of the undoped films. ZnO nanorods doped with Er only or together with Al or Ga codopants exhibit only one IR band (at λ{sub max} = 1535 nm), whose intensity decreases upon the introduction of codopants. Doping of the nanorods with the N{sup +} gaseous impurity during growth (930 < T < 960°C) and then with the Er{sup +} impurity by diffusion does not yield a substantial increase in the IR-emission intensity compared to the that of the corresponding band for nanorods not doped with the N{sup +} impurity. In the Er-doped nanorods, whose photoluminescence spectra exhibit a high-intensity band at λ{sub max} = 1535 nm, the UV emission band at λ{sub max} = 372 nm is practically lacking.« less

  1. ZrO{sub 2}-ZnO composite thin films for humidity sensing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Velumani, M., E-mail: velumanimohan@gmail.com; Sivacoumar, R.; Alex, Z. C.

    2016-05-23

    ZrO{sub 2}-ZnO composite thin films were grown by reactive DC magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction studies reveal the composite nature of the films with separate ZnO and ZrO{sub 2} phase. Scanning electron microscopy studies confirm the nanocrystalline structure of the films. The films were studied for their impedometric relative humidity (RH) sensing characteristics. The complex impedance plot was fitted with a standard equivalent circuit consisting of an inter-granular resistance and a capacitance in parallel. The DC resistance was found to be decreasing with increase in RH.

  2. Epitaxial ZnO gate dielectrics deposited by RF sputter for AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoon, Seonno; Lee, Seungmin; Kim, Hyun-Seop; Cha, Ho-Young; Lee, Hi-Deok; Oh, Jungwoo

    2018-01-01

    Radio frequency (RF)-sputtered ZnO gate dielectrics for AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors (MOS-HEMTs) were investigated with varying O2/Ar ratios. The ZnO deposited with a low oxygen content of 4.5% showed a high dielectric constant and low interface trap density due to the compensation of oxygen vacancies during the sputtering process. The good capacitance-voltage characteristics of ZnO-on-AlGaN/GaN capacitors resulted from the high crystallinity of oxide at the interface, as investigated by x-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The MOS-HEMTs demonstrated comparable output electrical characteristics with conventional Ni/Au HEMTs but a lower gate leakage current. At a gate voltage of -20 V, the typical gate leakage current for a MOS-HEMT with a gate length of 6 μm and width of 100 μm was found to be as low as 8.2 × 10-7 mA mm-1, which was three orders lower than that of the Ni/Au Schottky gate HEMT. The reduction of the gate leakage current improved the on/off current ratio by three orders of magnitude. These results indicate that RF-sputtered ZnO with a low O2/Ar ratio is a good gate dielectric for high-performance AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs.

  3. Doping induced modifications in the electronic structure and magnetism of ZnO films: Valence band and conduction band studies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Katba, Savan; Jethva, Sadaf; Udeshi, Malay; Trivedi, Priyanka; Vagadia, Megha; Shukla, D. K.; Choudhary, R. J.; Phase, D. M.; Kuberkar, D. G.

    2017-11-01

    The electronic structure of Pulsed Laser Deposited (PLD) ZnO, Zn0.95Fe0.05O (ZFO), Zn0.98Al0.02O (ZAO) and Zn0.93Fe0.05Al0.02O (ZFAO) films were investigated by Photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction and ϕ-scan measurements show epitaxial c-directional growth of the films. Temperature dependent magnetization and M-H loop measurements show the presence of room temperature magnetic ordering in all the films. Fittings of Fe 2p XPS and Fe L3,2 -edge XAS of ZFO and ZFAO films show the presence of Fe, in both, Fe+2 and Fe+3 states in tetrahedral symmetry. Valence band spectra in resonance mode show resonance photon energy at 56 eV showing the presence of Fe2+ state (∼2 eV) near the Fermi level. A significant effect of Fe and Al doping on the spectral shape of O K-edge XAS was observed. Results of the Spectroscopic studies reveal that, ferromagnetism in the films is due to the contribution of oxygen deficiency which increases the number of charge carriers that take part in the exchange interaction. Al co-doping with Fe (in ZFAO) results in the enhancement of saturation magnetization by increase in the carrier-mediated ferromagnetic exchange interaction.

  4. Effect of Er3+ doping on structural, morphological and photocatalytical properties of ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bouhouche, S.; Bensouici, F.; Toubane, M.; Azizi, A.; Otmani, A.; Chebout, K.; Kezzoula, F.; Tala-Ighil, R.; Bououdina, M.

    2018-05-01

    In this research work, structure, microstructure, optical and photocatalytic properties of undoped and Erbium doped nanostructured ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel dip-coating are investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicates that the deposited films crystallize within the hexagonal wurtzite-type structure with a preferential growth orientation along (002) plane. Morphological observations using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveal important influence of Er concentration; displaying homogeneous and dense aspect for undoped to 0.3% then grid-like morphology for 0.4 and 0.5%. UV/vis/NIR transmittance spectroscopy spectra display a transmittance over 70%, and small variation in the energy gap energy 3.263–3.278 eV. Wettability test of ZnO thin films surface ranges from hydrophilic aspect for pure ZnO to hydrophobic one for Er doped ZnO, and the contact angle is found to increase from 58.7° for pure ZnO up to 98.4° for 0.4% Er doped ZnO. The photocatalytic activity measurements evaluated using the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV light irradiation demonstrate that undoped ZnO film shows higher photocatalytic activity compared to Er doped ZnO films, which may be attributed to the deterioration of films’crystallinity resulting in lower transmittance.

  5. Ga flux dependence of Er-doped GaN luminescent thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, D. S.; Steckl, A. J.

    2002-02-01

    Er-doped GaN thin films have been grown on (111) Si substrates with various Ga fluxes in a radio frequency plasma molecular beam epitaxy system. Visible photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) emission at 537/558 nm and infrared (IR) PL emission at 1.5 μm from GaN:Er films exhibited strong dependence on the Ga flux. Both visible and IR PL and visible EL increase with the Ga flux up to the stoichiometric growth condition, as determined by growth rate saturation. Beyond this condition, all luminescence levels abruptly dropped to the detection limit with increasing Ga flux. The Er concentration, measured by secondary ion mass spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering, decreases with increasing Ga flux under N-rich growth conditions and remains constant above the stoichiometric growth condition. X-ray diffraction indicated that the crystalline quality of the GaN:Er film was improved with increasing Ga flux up to stoichiometric growth condition and then saturated. Er ions in the films grown under N-rich conditions appear much more optically active than those in the films grown under Ga-rich conditions.

  6. Intrinsic and extrinsic doping of ZnO and ZnO alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ellmer, Klaus; Bikowski, André

    2016-10-01

    In this article the doping of the oxidic compound semiconductor ZnO is reviewed with special emphasis on n-type doping. ZnO naturally exhibits n-type conductivity, which is used in the application of highly doped n-type ZnO as a transparent electrode, for instance in thin film solar cells. For prospective application of ZnO in other electronic devices (LEDs, UV photodetectors or power devices) p-type doping is required, which has been reported only minimally. Highly n-type doped ZnO can be prepared by doping with the group IIIB elements B, Al, Ga, and In, which act as shallow donors according to the simple hydrogen-like substitutional donor model of Bethe (1942 Theory of the Boundary Layer of Crystal Rectifiers (Boston, MA: MIT Rad Lab.)). Group IIIA elements (Sc, Y, La etc) are also known to act as shallow donors in ZnO, similarly explainable by the shallow donor model of Bethe. Some reports showed that even group IVA (Ti, Zr, Hf) and IVB (Si, Ge) elements can be used to prepare highly doped ZnO films—which, however, can no longer be explained by the simple hydrogen-like substitutional donor model. More probably, these elements form defect complexes that act as shallow donors in ZnO. On the other hand, group V elements on oxygen lattice sites (N, P, As, and Sb), which were viewed for a long time as typical shallow acceptors, behave instead as deep acceptors, preventing high hole concentrations in ZnO at room temperature. Also, ‘self’-compensation, i.e. the formation of a large number of intrinsic donors at high acceptor concentrations seems to counteract the p-type doping of ZnO. At donor concentrations above about 1020 cm-3, the electrical activation of the dopant elements is often less than 100%, especially in polycrystalline thin films. Reasons for the electrical deactivation of the dopant atoms are (i) the formation of dopant-defect complexes, (ii) the compensation of the electrons by acceptors (Oi, VZn) or (iii) the formation of secondary phases, for

  7. Effect of aluminium doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films by sol-gel method

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vijayaprasath, G.; Murugan, R.; Ravi, G., E-mail: raviganesa@rediffmail.com, E-mail: gravicrc@gmail.com

    2015-06-24

    We systematically investigated the structural, morphological and optical properties of 0.05 mol % Al doped ZnO (Al:ZnO) thin films deposited on glass substrates by sol-gel spin coating method. The influences of Al doping in ZnO thin films are characterized by Powder X-ray diffraction study. ZnO and Al:ZnO thin films have showed hexagonal wurtzite structure without any secondary phase in c-axis (002) orientation. The SEM images also proved the hexagonal rod like morphologies for both films. All the films exhibited transmittance of 70-80% in the visible range up to 800 nm and cut-off wavelength observed at ∼390 nm corresponding to the fundamental absorption ofmore » ZnO. The band gap of the ZnO thin films slightly widened with the Al doping. The photoluminescence properties have been studied for Al: ZnO thin films and the results are presented in detail.« less

  8. A comparative study of physico-chemical properties of CBD and SILAR grown ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jambure, S.B.; Patil, S.J.; Deshpande, A.R.

    2014-01-01

    Graphical abstract: Schematic model indicating ZnO nanorods by CBD (Z{sub 1}) and nanograins by SILAR (Z{sub 2}). - Highlights: • Simple methods for the synthesis of ZnO thin films. • Comparative study of physico-chemical properties of ZnO thin films prepared by CBD and SILAR methods. • CBD outperforms SILAR method. - Abstract: In the present work, nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have been successfully deposited onto glass substrates by simple and economical chemical bath deposition (CBD) and successive ionic layer adsorption reaction (SILAR) methods. These films were further characterized for their structural, optical, surface morphological and wettability properties. Themore » X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns for both CBD and SILAR deposited ZnO thin films reveal the highly crystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure. From optical studies, band gaps obtained are 2.9 and 3.0 eV for CBD and SILAR deposited thin films, respectively. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) patterns show growth of well defined randomly oriented nanorods and nanograins on the CBD and SILAR deposited samples, respectively. The resistivity of CBD deposited films (10{sup 2} Ω cm) is lower than that of SILAR deposited films (10{sup 5} Ω cm). Surface wettability studies show hydrophobic nature for both films. From the above results it can be concluded that CBD grown ZnO thin films show better properties as compared to SILAR method.« less

  9. Third generation biosensing matrix based on Fe-implanted ZnO thin film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saha, Shibu; Gupta, Vinay; Sreenivas, K.; Tan, H. H.; Jagadish, C.

    2010-09-01

    Third generation biosensor based on Fe-implanted ZnO (Fe-ZnO) thin film has been demonstrated. Implantation of Fe in rf-sputtered ZnO thin film introduces redox center along with shallow donor level and thereby enhance its electron transfer property. Glucose oxidase (GOx), chosen as model enzyme, has been immobilized on the surface of the matrix. Cyclic voltammetry and photometric assay show that the prepared bioelectrode, GOx/Fe-ZnO/ITO/Glass is sensitive to the glucose concentration with enhanced response of 0.326 μA mM-1 cm-2 and low Km of 2.76 mM. The results show promising application of Fe-implanted ZnO thin film as an attractive matrix for third generation biosensing.

  10. Vertical resistivity in nanocrystalline ZnO and amorphous InGaZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McCandless, Jonathan P.; Leedy, Kevin D.; Schuette, Michael L.

    2018-02-01

    The goal is to gain additional insight into physical mechanisms and the role of microstructure on the formation of ohmic contacts and the reduction of contact resistance. We have measured a decreasing film resistivity in the vertical direction with increasing thickness of pulsed-laser deposited ZnO and IGZO. As the ZnO thickness increases from 122 nm to 441 nm, a reduction in resistivity from 3.29 Ω-cm to 0.364 Ω-cm occurred. The IGZO resistivity changes from 72.4 Ω-cm to 0.642 Ω-cm as the film is increased from 108nm to 219 nm. In the ZnO, the size of nanocolumnar grains increase with thickness resulting in fewer grain boundaries, and in the amorphous IGZO, the thicker region exhibits tunnel-like artifacts which may contribute to the reduced resistivity.

  11. Improving p-type doping efficiency in Al{sub 0.83}Ga{sub 0.17}N alloy substituted by nanoscale (AlN){sub 5}/(GaN){sub 1} superlattice with Mg{sub Ga}-O{sub N} δ-codoping: Role of O-atom in GaN monolayer

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhong, Hong-xia; Shi, Jun-jie, E-mail: jjshi@pku.edu.cn; Jiang, Xin-he

    2015-01-15

    We calculate Mg-acceptor activation energy E{sub A} and investigate the influence of O-atom, occupied the Mg nearest-neighbor, on E{sub A} in nanoscale (AlN){sub 5}/(GaN){sub 1} superlattice (SL), a substitution for Al{sub 0.83}Ga{sub 0.17}N disorder alloy, using first-principles calculations. We find that the N-atom bonded with Ga-atom is more easily substituted by O-atom and nMg{sub Ga}-O{sub N} (n = 1-3) complexes are favorable and stable in the SL. The O-atom plays a dominant role in reducing E{sub A}. The shorter the Mg-O bond is, the smaller the E{sub A} is. The Mg-acceptor activation energy can be reduced significantly by nMg{sub Ga}-O{submore » N} δ-codoping. Our calculated E{sub A} for 2Mg{sub Ga}-O{sub N} is 0.21 eV, and can be further reduced to 0.13 eV for 3Mg{sub Ga}-O{sub N}, which results in a high hole concentration in the order of 10{sup 20} cm{sup −3} at room temperature in (AlN){sub 5}/(GaN){sub 1} SL. Our results prove that nMg{sub Ga}-O{sub N} (n = 2,3) δ-codoping in AlN/GaN SL with ultrathin GaN-layer is an effective way to improve p-type doping efficiency in Al-rich AlGaN.« less

  12. High performance thin film transistor with ZnO channel layer deposited by DC magnetron sputtering.

    PubMed

    Moon, Yeon-Keon; Moon, Dae-Yong; Lee, Sang-Ho; Jeong, Chang-Oh; Park, Jong-Wan

    2008-09-01

    Research in large area electronics, especially for low-temperature plastic substrates, focuses commonly on limitations of the semiconductor in thin film transistors (TFTs), in particular its low mobility. ZnO is an emerging example of a semiconductor material for TFTs that can have high mobility, while a-Si and organic semiconductors have low mobility (<1 cm2/Vs). ZnO-based TFTs have achieved high mobility, along with low-voltage operation low off-state current, and low gate leakage current. In general, ZnO thin films for the channel layer of TFTs are deposited with RF magnetron sputtering methods. On the other hand, we studied ZnO thin films deposited with DC magnetron sputtering for the channel layer of TFTs. After analyzing the basic physical and chemical properties of ZnO thin films, we fabricated a TFT-unit cell using ZnO thin films for the channel layer. The field effect mobility (micro(sat)) of 1.8 cm2/Vs and threshold voltage (Vth) of -0.7 V were obtained.

  13. Properties of transparent (Gd,Lu)3(Al,Ga)5O12:Ce ceramic with Mg, Ca and Ce co-dopants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yimin; Baldoni, Gary; Brecher, Charles; Rhodes, William H.; Shirwadkar, Urmila; Glodo, Jarek; Shah, Ishaan; Ji, Chuncheng

    2015-08-01

    Cerium activated mixed lutetium/gadolinium- and aluminum/gallium-based garnets have great potential as host scintillators for medical imaging applications. (Gd,Lu)3(Al,Ga)5O12:Ce and denoted as GLuGAG feature high effective atomic number and good light yield, which make it particularly attractive for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and other γ-ray detection applications. For PET application, rapid decay and good timing resolution are extremely important. Most Ce-doped mixed garnet materials such as GLuGAG:Ce, have their main decay component at around 80 ns. However, it has been reported that the decays of some single crystal scintillators (e.g., LSO and GGAG) can be effectively accelerated by codoping with selected additives such as Ca, Mg and B. In this study, transparent polycrystalline (Gd,Lu)3(Al,Ga)5O12:Ce ceramics codoped with Ca or Mg or additional Ce, were fabricated by the sinter-HIP approach. It was found the transmission of the ceramics are closely related to the microstructure of the ceramics. As the co-dopant levels increase, 2nd phase occurs in the ceramic and thus transparency of the ceramic decreases. Ca and Mg co-doping in GLuGAG:Ce ceramic effectively accelerate decays of GLuGAG:Ce ceramics at a cost of light output. However, additional Ce doping in the GLuGAG:Ce has no benefit on improving decay time but, on the other hand, reduces transmission, light output. The mechanism under the different scintillation behaviors with Mg, Ca and Ce dopants are discussed. The results suggest that decay time of GLuGAG:Ce ceramics can be effectively tailored by co-doping GLuGAG:Ce ceramic with Mg and Ca for applications with optimal timing resolution.

  14. Structure and morphology of magnetron sputter deposited ultrathin ZnO films on confined polymeric template

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Ajaib; Schipmann, Susanne; Mathur, Aakash; Pal, Dipayan; Sengupta, Amartya; Klemradt, Uwe; Chattopadhyay, Sudeshna

    2017-08-01

    The structure and morphology of ultra-thin zinc oxide (ZnO) films with different film thicknesses on confined polymer template were studied through X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS). Using magnetron sputter deposition technique ZnO thin films with different film thicknesses (<10 nm) were grown on confined polystyrene with ∼2Rg film thickness, where Rg ∼ 20 nm (Rg is the unperturbed radius of gyration of polystyrene, defined by Rg = 0.272 √M0, and M0 is the molecular weight of polystyrene). The detailed internal structure, along the surface/interfaces and the growth direction of the system were explored in this study, which provides insight into the growth procedure of ZnO on confined polymer and reveals that a thin layer of ZnO, with very low surface and interface roughness, can be grown by DC magnetron sputtering technique, with approximately full coverage (with bulk like electron density) even in nm order of thickness, in 2-7 nm range on confined polymer template, without disturbing the structure of the underneath template. The resulting ZnO-polystyrene hybrid systems show strong ZnO near band edge (NBE) and deep-level (DLE) emissions in their room temperature photoluminescence spectra, where the contribution of DLE gets relatively stronger with decreasing ZnO film thickness, indicating a significant enhancement of surface defects because of the greater surface to volume ratio in thinner films.

  15. Effect of Doping Materials on the Low-Level NO Gas Sensing Properties of ZnO Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Çorlu, Tugba; Karaduman, Irmak; Yildirim, Memet Ali; Ateş, Aytunç; Acar, Selim

    2017-07-01

    In this study, undoped, Cu-doped, and Ni-doped ZnO thin films have been successfully prepared by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. The structural, compositional, and morphological properties of the thin films are characterized by x-ray diffractometer, energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX), and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Doping effects on the NO gas sensing properties of these thin films were investigated depending on gas concentration and operating temperature. Cu-doped ZnO thin film exhibited a higher gas response than undoped and Ni-doped ZnO thin film at the operating temperature range. The sensor with Cu-doped ZnO thin film gave faster responses and recovery speeds than other sensors, so that is significant for the convenient application of gas sensor. The response and recovery speeds could be associated with the effective electron transfer between the Cu-doped ZnO and the NO molecules.

  16. Non-polar p-type Zn0.94Mn0.05Na0.01O texture: Growth mechanism and codoping effect

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, L. Q.; Lu, B.; Lu, Y. H.; Ye, Z. Z.; Lu, J. G.; Pan, X. H.; Huang, J. Y.

    2013-02-01

    The microstructure and crystal orientations of polycrystalline films crucially affect the properties and performance of the films. Controlling preferred orientations (PO) and related film morphology are necessary to obtain the desirable properties. In this paper, we demonstrate a rational and effective route toward the realization of non-polar p-type ZnO thin film with surface texture on quartz substrate through Mn-Na codoping. It is uncovered experimentally and theoretically that mono-doping of Mn creates opportunity to realize PO from polar (c-axis) to non-polar ((101¯0), (101¯1), and (112¯0)) changing. With Mn-Na codoping, an acute modulation of the growth behavior and electrical conductivity of the film have been revealed, leading to weak p-type non-polar Zn0.94Mn0.05Na0.01O (ZMNO) texture. The dominant mechanism for the non-polar self-texture in the current paper is deliberately elucidated as resulting from the interplane surface diffusion with the cooperative effect of impurity dopants. The ZMNO films exhibit p-type conduction with hole concentration of 9.51 × 1015-1.86 × 1017 cm-3 and enhanced room temperature (RT) ferromagnetism possessing a saturation magnetization (Ms) of 1.52 μB/Mn. The results have potential applications in development of non-polar optoelectronic devices such as lighting emitting diodes (LEDs).

  17. Nanocomposite films based on CMC, okra mucilage and ZnO nanoparticles: Physico mechanical and antibacterial properties.

    PubMed

    Mohammadi, Hamid; Kamkar, Abolfazl; Misaghi, Ali

    2018-02-01

    This work examined the physico mechanical parameters and antibacterial activity of CMC/okra mucilage (OM) blend films containing ZnO nanoparticles (NPs). Different proportions of CMC and okra mucilage (100/0; 70/30; 60/40 and 50/50 respectively), were mixed and casted to posterior analysis of formed films. The more colored films were obtained by higher contents of okra mucilage and adding ZnO nanoparticles. The incorporation of ZnO NPs into CMC film decreased the elongation at the break (EB) value of the films and increased the tensile strength (TS) value of the film. With increase in CMC concentration in the films, higher water vapor permeability and higher solubility in water were achieved. Microstructure analysis using SEM showed a smooth and compact surface morphology, homogeneous structure, and a rough surface for CMC, CMC+ZnO, and CMC/OM30%+ZnO, respectively. Nanocomposite films presented antibacterial activity against tested bacteria. Films contained okra mucilage showed more antibacterial activity. The inhibitory activities of resultant films were stronger against S. aureus than E. coli. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Photoelectrochemical properties of highly mobilized Li-doped ZnO thin films.

    PubMed

    Shinde, S S; Bhosale, C H; Rajpure, K Y

    2013-03-05

    Li-doped ZnO thin films with preferred (002) orientation have been prepared by spray pyrolysis technique in aqueous medium on to the corning glass substrates. The effect of Li-doping on to the photoelectrochemical, structural, morphological, optical, luminescence, electrical and thermal properties has been investigated. XRD and Raman study indicates that the films have hexagonal crystal structure. The transmittance, reflectance, refractive index, extinction coefficient and bandgap have been analyzed by optical study. PL spectra consist of a near band edge and visible emission due to the electronic defects, which are related to deep level emissions, such as oxide antisite (OZn), interstitial zinc (Zni), interstitial oxygen (Oi) and zinc vacancy (VZn). The Li-doped ZnO films prepared for 1at% doping possesses the highest electron mobility of 102cm(2)/Vs and carrier concentration of 3.62×10(19)cm(-3). Finally, degradation of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene using Li-doped ZnO thin films has been reported. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Fabrication of nanostructured Al-doped ZnO thin film for methane sensing applications

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shafura, A. K., E-mail: shafura@ymail.com; Azhar, N. E. I.; Uzer, M.

    2016-07-06

    CH{sub 4} gas sensor was fabricated using spin-coating method of the nanostructured ZnO thin film. Effect of annealing temperature on the electrical and structural properties of the film was investigated. Dense nanostructured ZnO film are obtained at higher annealing temperature. The optimal condition of annealing temperature is 500°C which has conductivity and sensitivity value of 3.3 × 10{sup −3} S/cm and 11.5%, respectively.

  20. Oxygen partial pressure influence on the character of InGaZnO thin films grown by PLD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lu, Yi; Wang, Li

    2012-11-01

    The amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) are promising for emerging large-area optoelectronic applications because of capability of large-area, uniform deposition at low temperatures such as room temperature (RT). Indium-gallium-zinc oxide (InGaZnO) thin film is a promising amorphous semiconductors material in thin film transistors (TFT) for its excellent electrical properties. In our work, the InGaZnO thin films are fabricated on the SiO2 glass using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in the oxygen partial pressure altered from 1 to 10 Pa at RT. The targets were prepared by mixing Ga2O3, In2O3, and ZnO powder at a mol ratio of 1: 7: 2 before the solid-state reactions in a tube furnace at the atmospheric pressure. The targets were irradiated by an Nd:YAG laser(355nm). Finally, we have three films of 270nm, 230nm, 190nm thick for 1Pa, 5Pa, 10Pa oxygen partial pressure. The product thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Hall-effect investigation. The comparative study demonstrated the character changes of the structure and electronic transport properties, which is probably occurred as a fact of the different oxygen partial pressure used in the PLD.

  1. Electrochemical Synthesis of Highly Oriented, Transparent, and Pinhole-Free ZnO and Al-Doped ZnO Films and Their Use in Heterojunction Solar Cells.

    PubMed

    Kang, Donghyeon; Lee, Dongho; Choi, Kyoung-Shin

    2016-10-04

    Electrochemical synthesis conditions using nonaqueous solutions were developed to prepare highly transparent (T > 90%) and crystalline ZnO and Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films for use in solar energy conversion devices. A focused effort was made to produce pinhole-free films in a reproducible manner by identifying a key condition to prevent the formation of cracks during deposition. The polycrystalline domains in the resulting films had a uniform orientation (i.e., the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate), which enhanced the electron transport properties of the films. Furthermore, electrochemical Al doping of ZnO using nonaqueous media, which was demonstrated for the first time in this study, effectively increased the carrier density and raised the Fermi level of ZnO. These films were coupled with an electrodeposited p-type Cu 2 O to construct p-n heterojunction solar cells to demonstrate the utilization of these films for solar energy conversion. The resulting n-ZnO/p-Cu 2 O and n-AZO/p-Cu 2 O cells showed excellent performance compared with previously reported n-ZnO/p-Cu 2 O cells prepared by electrodeposition. In particular, replacing ZnO with AZO resulted in simultaneous enhancements in short circuit current and open circuit potential, and the n-AZO/p-Cu 2 O cell achieved an average power conversion efficiency (η) of 0.92 ± 0.09%. The electrodeposition condition reported here will offer a practical and versatile way to produce ZnO or AZO films, which play key roles in various solar energy conversion devices, with qualities comparable to those prepared by vacuum-based techniques.

  2. Zinc interstitial threshold in Al-doped ZnO film: Effect on microstructure and optoelectronic properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Chetan C.; Panda, Emila

    2018-04-01

    In order to know the threshold quantity of the zinc interstitials that contributes to an increase in carrier concentration in the Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films and their effect on the overall microstructure and optoelectronic properties of these films, in this work, Zn-rich-AZO and ZnO thin films are fabricated by adding excess zinc (from a zinc metallic target) during their deposition in RF magnetron sputtering and are then investigated using a wide range of experimental techniques. All these films are found to grow in a ZnO hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure with strong (002) orientation of the crystallites, with no indication of Al2O3, metallic Zn, and Al. The excessively introduced zinc in these AZO and/or ZnO films is found to increase the shallow donor level defects (i.e., zinc interstitials and oxygen-related electronic defect states), which is found to significantly increase the carrier concentration in these films. Additionally, aluminum is seen to enhance the creation of these electronic defect states in these films, thereby contributing more to the overall carrier concentration of these films. However, carrier mobility is found to decrease when the carrier concentration values are higher than 4 × 1020 cm-3, because of the electron-electron scattering. Whereas the optical band gap of the ZnO films is found to increase with increasing carrier concentration because of the Burstein-Moss shift, these decrease for the AZO films due to the band gap narrowing effect caused by excess carrier concentration.

  3. Micro-patterned ZnO semiconductors for high performance thin film transistors via chemical imprinting with a PDMS stamp.

    PubMed

    Seong, Kieun; Kim, Kyongjun; Park, Si Yun; Kim, Youn Sang

    2013-04-07

    Chemical imprinting was conducted on ZnO semiconductor films via a chemical reaction at the contact regions between a micro-patterned PDMS stamp and ZnO films. In addition, we applied the chemical imprinting on Li doped ZnO thin films for high performance TFTs fabrication. The representative micro-patterned Li doped ZnO TFTs showed a field effect mobility of 4.2 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) after sintering at 300 °C.

  4. Optical absorption edge of ZnO thin films: The effect of substrate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Srikant, V.; Clarke, D. R.

    1997-05-01

    The optical absorption edge and the near-absorption edge characteristics of undoped ZnO films grown by laser ablation on various substrates have been investigated. The band edge of films on C [(0001)] and R-plane [(1102)] sapphire, 3.29 and 3.32 eV, respectively, are found to be very close to the single crystal value of ZnO (3.3 eV) with the differences being accounted for in terms of the thermal mismatch strain using the known deformation potentials of ZnO. In contrast, films grown on fused silica consistently exhibit a band edge ˜0.1 eV lower than that predicted using the known deformation potential and the thermal mismatch strains. This behavior is attributed to the small grain size (50 nm) realized in these films and the effect of electrostatic potentials that exist at the grain boundaries. Additionally, the spread in the tail (E0) of the band edge for the different films is found to be very sensitive to the defect structure in the films. For films grown on sapphire substrates, values of E0 as low as 30 meV can be achieved on annealing in air, whereas films on fused silica always show a value >100 meV. We attribute this difference to the substantially higher density of high-angle grain boundaries in the films on fused silica.

  5. Synthesis, Optical and Photoluminescence Properties of Cu-Doped Zno Nano-Fibers Thin Films: Nonlinear Optics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ganesh, V.; Salem, G. F.; Yahia, I. S.; Yakuphanoglu, F.

    2018-03-01

    Different concentrations of copper-doped zinc oxide thin films were coated on a glass substrate by sol-gel/spin-coating technique. The structural properties of pure and Cu-doped ZnO films were characterized by different techniques, i.e., atomic force microscopy (AFM), photoluminescence and UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy. The AFM study revealed that pure and doped ZnO films are formed as nano-fibers with a granular structure. The photoluminescence spectra of these films showed a strong ultraviolet emission peak centered at 392 nm and a strong blue emission peak cantered at 450 nm. The optical band gap of the pure and copper-doped ZnO thin films calculated from optical transmission spectra (3.29-3.23 eV) were found to be increasing with increasing copper doping concentration. The refractive index dispersion curve of pure and Cu-doped ZnO film obeyed the single-oscillator model. The optical dispersion parameters such as E o , E d , and n_{∞}2 were calculated. Further, the nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear optical susceptibility were also calculated and interpreted.

  6. UV-screening, transparency and water barrier properties of semi refined iota carrageenan packaging film incorporated with ZnO nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khoirunnisa, Assifa Rahma; Joni, I. Made; Panatarani, Camellia; Rochima, Emma; Praseptiangga, Danar

    2018-02-01

    This study aims to develop film for food packaging application with high UV-screening, transparency and water barrier properties. Semi refined iota carrageenan (SRiC) nanocomposite films prepared by addition of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles as nanofiller using solution casting method. The effect of nanofiller with different concentration (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% w/w carrageenan) on UV-screening, transparency and water barrier properties of films were tested. The water barrier properties of the films were studied by measuring water vapor permeability (WVP) and the optical properties of the films were studied by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer at 280 nm for UV-screening test and at 660 nm for transparency test. WVP value of carrageenan films with addition of ZnO is low compared to a control carrageenan film and the lowest WVP value was found for the film with addition of 1.5% of ZnO. These result indicate that the addition of ZnO had a positive effect on the water barrier properties of the carrageenan matrix. Increase in the concentration of nanofiller leads to an increase in the UV-screening properties. Among all the films, carrageenan film with 1.5% ZnO has the highest UV-screening. The result showed that adding 0.5% and 1.0% of ZnO was insignificantly affect transparency of the films, however the transparency decreased sligthly when 1.5% ZnO was added. In conclusion, incorporating no more than 1.0% of ZnO to the films can obtain films with high UV-screening, transparency and water barrier properties and suitable for food packaging application.

  7. Growth and characterization of highly conducting Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films for optoelectronic applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sardana, Sanjay K.; Singh, Anil; Srivastava, Sanjay K.; Pandya, Dinesh K.

    2018-05-01

    A comparative study of undoped ZnO and Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films deposited on glass substrate by spray pyrolysis has been carried out at various aqueous molar concentration of zinc acetate. The thin films deposited on glass shows the wurtzite phase of ZnO, confirmed by X-ray diffraction. The optical study shows the high transmittance over 80% in the visible regime. The band gap of AZO thin films shows a blue shift as compared to undoped ZnO, which has been attributed to Burstein-Moss shift. Heat treatment of these samples in vacuum showed the improved conductivity in compared to as-deposited thin films. The electric study shows the minimum resistivity of 8 x 10-3 Ω-cm and carrier concentration of 6.5 × 1019 /cm3 correspond to AZO thin films.

  8. Cd-doped ZnO nano crystalline thin films prepared at 723K by spray pyrolysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Joishy, Sumanth; Rajendra B., V.

    2018-04-01

    Ternary Zn1-xCdxO(x=0.10, 0.40, 0.70 at.%) thin films of 0.025M precursor concentration have been successfully deposited on preheated (723K) glass substrates using spray pyrolysis route. The structure, morphology and optical properties of deposited films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and UV-Visible spectrophotometry. X-ray diffraction study shows that the prepared films are polycrystalline in nature. 10% Cd doped ZnO film belongs to the hexagonal wurtzite system and 70% Cd doped ZnO film belongs to the cubic system, although mixed phases were formed for 40% Cd doped ZnO film. The optical transmittance spectra has shown red shift with increasing cadmium content. Optical energy band gap has been reduced with cadmium dopant.

  9. Microwave Characterization of Ba-Substituted PZT and ZnO Thin Films.

    PubMed

    Tierno, Davide; Dekkers, Matthijn; Wittendorp, Paul; Sun, Xiao; Bayer, Samuel C; King, Seth T; Van Elshocht, Sven; Heyns, Marc; Radu, Iuliana P; Adelmann, Christoph

    2018-05-01

    The microwave dielectric properties of (Ba 0.1 Pb 0.9 )(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (BPZT) and ZnO thin films with thicknesses below were investigated. No significant dielectric relaxation was observed for both BPZT and ZnO up to 30 GHz. The intrinsic dielectric constant of BPZT was as high as 980 at 30 GHz. The absence of strong dielectric dispersion and loss peaks in the studied frequency range can be linked to the small grain diameters in these ultrathin films.

  10. Highly Reflective Nonalloyed Ni/Ag/Pt Contact to Mg-Si Codoped p-GaN for Enhanced Efficiency of Light-Emitting Diodes.

    PubMed

    Oh, Munsik; Kim, Hyunsoo

    2015-10-01

    The authors report enhanced efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated with highly reflective nonalloyed Ni/Ag/Pt contact. The Ni/Ag/Pt contact formed on the Mg-Si codoped p-GaN produced the low specific contact resistance of 7.9 x 10(-4) Ωcm2 under as-deposited condition, which is comparable to the reference reflector (annealed at 500 °C for 1 min in oxygen ambient). Current-voltage-temperature measurements and the secondary ion mass spectroscopy revealed that the ohmic mechanism of the nonalloyed Ni/Ag/Pt contact is due to the more generated deep-level states associated with Mg-Si codoping, which act as the efficient hopping centers for the carrier transport at the contact/p-GaN interface. Due to the absence of interfacial reaction, the nonalloyed Ni/Ag/Pt contact showed much higher optical reflectivity (93.4% at 450 nm) as compared to the annealed sample (57.7%), resulting in a 40.5% brighter light output power as compared to the reference LEDs.

  11. Disposable urea biosensor based on nanoporous ZnO film fabricated from omissible polymeric substrate.

    PubMed

    Rahmanian, Reza; Mozaffari, Sayed Ahmad; Abedi, Mohammad

    2015-12-01

    In the present study, a facile and simple fabrication method of a semiconductor based urea biosensor was reported via three steps: (i) producing a ZnO-PVA composite film by means of a polymer assisted electrodeposition of zinc oxide (ZnO) on the F-doped SnO2 conducting glass (FTO) using water soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), (ii) obtaining a nanoporous ZnO film by PVA omission via a subsequent post-treatment by annealing of the ZnO-PVA film, and (iii) preparation of a FTO/ZnO/Urs biosensor by exploiting a nanoporous ZnO film as an efficient and excellent platform area for electrostatic immobilization of urease enzyme (Urs) which was forced by the difference in their isoelectric point (IEP). The characterization techniques focused on the analysis of the ZnO-PVA film surfaces before and after annealing, which had a prominent effect on the porosity of the prepared ZnO film. The surface characterization of the nanostructured ZnO film by a field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), exhibited a film surface area as an effective bio-sensing matrix for enzyme immobilization. The structural characterization and monitoring of the biosensor fabrication was performed using UV-Vis, Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR), Raman Spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. The impedimetric results of the FTO/ZnO/Urs biosensor showed a high sensitivity for urea detection within 8.0-110.0mg dL(-1) with the limit of detection as 5.0mg dL(-1). Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. ZnO thin-film transistors with a polymeric gate insulator built on a polyethersulfone substrate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hyung, Gun Woo; Park, Jaehoon; Koo, Ja Ryong; Choi, Kyung Min; Kwon, Sang Jik; Cho, Eou Sik; Kim, Yong Seog; Kim, Young Kwan

    2012-03-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) with a cross-linked poly(vinyl alcohol) (c-PVA) insulator are fabricated on a polyethersulfone substrate. The ZnO film, formed by atomic layer deposition, shows a polycrystalline hexagonal structure with a band gap energy of about 3.37 eV. The fabricated ZnO TFT exhibits a field-effect mobility of 0.38 cm2/Vs and a threshold voltage of 0.2 V. The hysteresis of the device is mainly caused by trapped electrons at the c-PVA/ZnO interface, whereas the positive threshold voltage shift occurs as a consequence of constant positive gate bias stress after 5000 s due to an electron injection from the ZnO film into the c-PVA insulator.

  13. Precursor-route ZnO films from a mixed casting solvent for high performance aqueous electrolyte-gated transistors.

    PubMed

    Althagafi, Talal M; Algarni, Saud A; Al Naim, Abdullah; Mazher, Javed; Grell, Martin

    2015-12-14

    We significantly improved the performance of precursor-route semiconducting zinc oxide (ZnO) films in electrolyte-gated thin film transistors (TFTs). We find that the organic precursor to ZnO, zinc acetate (ZnAc), dissolves more readily in a 1 : 1 mixture of ethanol (EtOH) and acetone than in pure EtOH, pure acetone, or pure isopropanol. XPS and SEM characterisation show improved morphology of ZnO films converted from a mixed solvent cast ZnAc precursor compared to the EtOH cast precursor. When gated with a biocompatible electrolyte, phosphate buffered saline (PBS), ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs) derived from mixed solvent cast ZnAc give 4 times larger field effect current than similar films derived from ZnAc cast from pure EtOH. The sheet resistance at VG = VD = 1 V is 30 kΩ □(-1), lower than for any organic TFT, and lower than for any electrolyte-gated ZnO TFT reported to date.

  14. Temperature dependent optical properties of ZnO thin film using ellipsometry and photoluminescence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bouzourâa, M.-B.; Battie, Y.; Dalmasso, S.; Zaïbi, M.-A.; Oueslati, M.; En Naciri, A.

    2018-05-01

    We report the temperature dependence of the dielectric function, the exciton binding energy and the electronic transitions of crystallized ZnO thin film using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and photoluminescence (PL). ZnO layers were prepared by sol-gel method and deposited on crystalline silicon (Si) by spin coating technique. The ZnO optical properties were determined between 300 K and 620 K. Rigorous study of optical responses was achieved in order to demonstrate the quenching exciton of ZnO as a function of temperature. Numerical technique named constrained cubic splines approximation (CCS), Tauc-Lorentz (TL) and Tanguy dispersion models were selected for the ellipsometry data modeling in order to obtain the dielectric function of ZnO. The results reveals that the exciton bound becomes widely flattening at 470 K on the one hand, and on the other that the Tanguy dispersion law is more appropriate for determining the optical responses of ZnO thin film in the temperature range of 300 K-420 K. The Tauc-Lorentz, for its part, reproduces correctly the ZnO dielectric function in 470 K-620 K temperature range. The temperature dependence of the electronic transition given by SE and PL shows that the exciton quenching was observed in 420 K-∼520 K temperature range. This quenching effect can be explained by the equilibrium between the Coulomb force of exciton and its kinetic energy in the film. The kinetic energy was found to induce three degrees of freedom of the exciton.

  15. Anisotropic polaron localization and spontaneous symmetry breaking: Comparison of cation-site acceptors in GaN and ZnO

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, Y. Y.; Abtew, Tesfaye A.; Zhang, Peihong; Zhang, S. B.

    2014-10-01

    The behavior of cation substitutional hole doping in GaN and ZnO is investigated using hybrid density functional calculations. Our results reveal that Mg substitution for Ga (MgGa) in GaN can assume three different configurations. Two of the configurations are characterized by the formation of defect-bound small polaron (i.e., a large structural distortion accompanied by hole localization on one of the neighboring N atoms). The third one has a relatively small but significant distortion that is characterized by highly anisotropic polaron localization. In this third configuration, MgGa exhibits both effective-mass-like and noneffective-mass-like characters. In contrast, a similar defect in ZnO, LiZn, cannot sustain the anisotropic polaron in the hybrid functional calculation, but undergoes spontaneous breaking of a mirror symmetry through a mechanism driven by the hole localization. Finally, using NaZn in ZnO as an example, we show that the deep acceptor levels of the small-polaron defects could be made shallower by applying compressive strain to the material.

  16. Quantitative study of energy-transfer mechanism in Eu,O-codoped GaN by time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Inaba, Tomohiro; Kojima, Takanori; Yamashita, Genki; Matsubara, Eiichi; Mitchell, Brandon; Miyagawa, Reina; Eryu, Osamu; Tatebayashi, Jun; Ashida, Masaaki; Fujiwara, Yasufumi

    2018-04-01

    In order to investigate the excitation processes in Eu,O-codoped GaN (GaN:Eu,O), the time-resolved photoluminescence signal including the rising part is analyzed. A rate equation is developed based upon a model for the excitation processes in GaN:Eu to fit the experimental data. The non-radiative recombination rate of the trap state in the GaN host, the energy transfer rate between the Eu3+ ions and the GaN host, the radiative transition probability of Eu3+ ion, as well as the ratio of the number of luminescent sites (OMVPE 4α and OMVPE 4β), are simultaneously determined. It is revealed and quantified that radiative transition probability of the Eu ion is the bottleneck for the enhancement of light output from GaN:Eu. We also evaluate the effect of the growth conditions on the luminescent efficiency of GaN:Eu quantitatively, and find the correlation between emission intensity of GaN:Eu and the fitting parameters introduced in our model.

  17. Influence of C or In buffer layer on photoluminescence behaviour of ultrathin ZnO film

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Saravanan, K., E-mail: saravanan@igcar.gov.in; Jayalakshmi, G.; Krishnan, R.

    We study the effect of the indium or carbon buffer layer on the photoluminescence (PL) property of ZnO ultrathin films deposited on a Si(100) substrate. The surface morphology of the films obtained using scanning tunnelling microscopy shows spherical shaped ZnO nanoparticles of size ∼8 nm in ZnO/C/Si and ∼22 nm in ZnO/Si samples, while the ZnO/In/Si sample shows elliptical shaped ZnO particles. Further, the ZnO/C/Si sample shows densely packed ZnO nanoparticles in comparison with other samples. Strong band edge emission has been observed in the presence of In or C buffer layer, whereas the ZnO/Si sample exhibits poor PL emission. The influencemore » of C and In buffer layers on the PL behaviour of ZnO films is studied in detail using temperature dependent PL measurements in the range of 4 K–300 K. The ZnO/C/Si sample exhibits a multi-fold enhancement in the PL emission intensity with well-resolved free and bound exciton emission lines. Our experimental results imply that the ZnO films deposited on the C buffer layer showed higher particle density and better exciton emission desired for optoelectronic applications.« less

  18. Temperature dependent optical properties of (002) oriented ZnO thin film using surface plasmon resonance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saha, Shibu; Mehan, Navina; Sreenivas, K.; Gupta, Vinay

    2009-08-01

    Temperature dependent optical properties of c-axis oriented ZnO thin film were investigated using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique. SPR data for double layer (prism-Au-ZnO-air) and single layer (prism-Au-air) systems were taken over a temperature range (300-525 K). Dielectric constant at optical frequency and real part of refractive index of the ZnO film shows an increase with temperature. The bandgap of the oriented ZnO film was found to decrease with rise in temperature. The work indicates a promising application of the system as a temperature sensor and highlights an efficient scientific tool to study optical properties of thin film under varying ambient conditions.

  19. Synthesis and Characterization of Molybdenum Doped ZnO Thin Films by SILAR Deposition Method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Radha, R.; Sakthivelu, A.; Pradhabhan, D.

    2016-08-01

    Molybdenum (Mo) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on the glass substrate by Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) deposition method. The effect of Mo dopant concentration of 5, 6.6 and 10 mol% on the structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of n-type Mo doped ZnO films was studied. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirmed that the Mo doped ZnO thin films were polycrystalline with wurtzite structure. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) studies shows that the surface morphology of the films changes with Mo doping. A blue shift of the optical band gap was observed in the optical studies. Effect of Mo dopant concentration on electrical conductivity was studied and it shows comparatively high electrical conductivity at 10 mol% of Mo doping concentration.

  20. Effect of cobalt doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO nanoparticles

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Singh, J.; Chanda, A., E-mail: anupamamatsc@gmail.com; Gupta, S.

    Cobalt doped ZnO nanoparticles of uniform sizes were prepared by a chemical method using ZnCl{sub 2} and NaOH as the source materials. The formation of Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM (HR-TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) studies. The optical properties of obtained products were examined using room temperature UV-visible and FTIR spectroscopy. SAED of cobalt doped ZnO nanoparticles shows homogeneous distribution of nanoparticles with hexagonal structure. The HRTEM image of the Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles reveals a clear lattice spacing of 0.52 nm corresponding to the interplanar spacing of wurtzite ZnO (002) plane.more » The absorption band at 857 cm{sup −1} in FTIR spectra confirmed the tetrahedral coordination of Zn and a shift of absorption peak to shorter wavelength region and decrease in absorbance with Co doping.is observed in UV-Visible spectra.« less

  1. Superhydrophobic Ag decorated ZnO nanostructured thin film as effective surface enhanced Raman scattering substrates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jayram, Naidu Dhanpal; Sonia, S.; Poongodi, S.; Kumar, P. Suresh; Masuda, Yoshitake; Mangalaraj, D.; Ponpandian, N.; Viswanathan, C.

    2015-11-01

    The present work is an attempt to overcome the challenges in the fabrication of super hydrophobic silver decorated zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure thin films via thermal evaporation process. The ZnO nanowire thin films are prepared without any surface modification and show super hydrophobic nature with a contact angle of 163°. Silver is further deposited onto the ZnO nanowire to obtain nanoworm morphology. Silver decorated ZnO (Ag@ZnO) thin films are used as substrates for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) studies. The formation of randomly arranged nanowire and silver decorated nanoworm structure is confirmed using FESEM, HR-TEM and AFM analysis. Crystallinity and existence of Ag on ZnO are confirmed using XRD and XPS studies. A detailed growth mechanism is discussed for the formation of the nanowires from nanobeads based on various deposition times. The prepared SERS substrate reveals a reproducible enhancement of 3.082 × 107 M for Rhodamine 6G dye (R6G) for 10-10 molar concentration per liter. A higher order of SERS spectra is obtained for a contact angle of 155°. Thus the obtained thin films show the superhydrophobic nature with a highly enhanced Raman spectrum and act as SERS substrates. The present nanoworm morphology shows a new pathway for the construction of semiconductor thin films for plasmonic studies and challenges the orderly arranged ZnO nanorods, wires and other nano structure substrates used in SERS studies.

  2. Role of Ce4+ in the Scintillation Mechanism of Codoped Gd3Ga3Al2O12∶Ce

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Yuntao; Meng, Fang; Li, Qi; Koschan, Merry; Melcher, Charles L.

    2014-10-01

    To control the time-response performance of widely used cerium-activated scintillators in cutting-edge medical-imaging devices, such as time-of-flight positron-emission tomography, a comprehensive understanding of the role of Ce valence states, especially stable Ce44, in the scintillation mechanism is essential. However, despite some progress made recently, an understanding of the physical processes involving Ce4+ is still lacking. The aim of this work is to clarify the role of Ce4+ in scintillators by studying Ca2+ codoped Gd3Ga3Al2O12∶Ce (GGAG ∶Ce). By using a combination of optical absorption spectra and x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopies, the correlation between Ca2+ codoping content and the Ce4+ fraction is seen. The energy-level diagrams of Ce3+ and Ce4+ in the Gd3Ga3Al2O12 host are established by using theoretical and experimental methods, which indicate a higher position of the 5d1 state of Ce4+ in the forbidden gap in comparison to that of Ce3+. Underlying reasons for the decay-time acceleration resulting from Ca2+ codoping are revealed, and the physical processes of the Ce4+-emission model are proposed and further demonstrated by temperature-dependent radioluminescence spectra under x-ray excitation.

  3. Annealing effect on the structural, morphological and electrical properties of TiO2/ZnO bilayer thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khan, M. I.; Imran, S.; Shahnawaz; Saleem, Muhammad; Ur Rehman, Saif

    2018-03-01

    The effect of annealing temperature on the structural, morphological and electrical properties of TiO2/ZnO (TZ) thin films has been observed. Bilayer thin films of TiO2/ZnO are deposited on FTO glass substrate by spray pyrolysis method. After deposition, these films are annealed at 573 K, 723 K and 873 K. XRD shows that TiO2 is present in anatase phase only and ZnO is present in hexagonal phase. No other phases of TiO2 and ZnO are present. Also, there is no evidence of other compounds like Zn-Ti etc. It also shows that the average grain size of TiO2/ZnO films is increased by increasing annealing temperature. AFM (Atomic force microscope) showed that the average roughness of TiO2/ZnO films is decreased at temperature 573-723 K and then increased at 873 K. The calculated average sheet resistivity of thin films annealed at 573 K, 723 K and 873 K is 152.28 × 102, 75.29 × 102 and 63.34 × 102 ohm-m respectively. This decrease in sheet resistivity might be due to the increment of electron concentration with increasing thickness and the temperature of thin films.

  4. Trap depth and color variation of Ce3+-Cr3+ co-doped Gd3(Al,Ga)5O12 garnet persistent phosphors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Asami, Kazuki; Ueda, Jumpei; Tanabe, Setsuhisa

    2016-12-01

    Persistent luminescent properties in Ce3+-Cr3+ codoped Gd3Al5-xGaxO12 garnet (GAGG:Ce-Cr) solid solution have been investigated. The persistent luminescent color is shifted from orange to yellowish green with increasing Ga content because Ce3+: 5d level splitting becomes much weaker. The depth of electron trap introduced by Cr codoping was estimated from the intense thermoluminescence glow peak by the initial rise method. The trap depth decreases from 0.56 eV to 0.29 eV with increasing Ga content. The shift can be explained by downshift of bottom of conduction band. From the persistent luminescence decay curve measurement after ceasing 450 nm blue illumination, the samples with x = 2.5 exhibited the longest persistent luminescence for 405 min until the luminance becomes 2 mcd/m2 in GAGG:Ce-Cr phosphors.

  5. Ab initio calculations on the initial stages of GaN and ZnO growth on lattice-matched ScAlMgO4 (0001) substrates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Yao; Wang, Yanfei; Li, Chengbo; Li, Xianchang; Niu, Yongsheng; Hou, Shaogang

    2016-12-01

    The initial stages of GaN and ZnO epitaxial growth on lattice-matched ScAlMgO4 substrates have been investigated by ab initio calculation. The geometrical parameters and electronic structure of ScAlMgO4 bulk and (0001) surface have been investigated by density-functional first-principles study. The effects of different surface terminations have been examined through surface energy and relaxation calculations. The O-Mg-O termination is more favorable than other terminations by comparing the calculated surface energies. It should be accepted as the appropriate surface structure in subsequent calculation. The initial stages of GaN and ZnO epitaxial growths are discussed based on the adsorption and diffusion of the adatoms on reconstructed ScAlMgO4 (0001) surface. According to theoretical characterizations, N adatom on the surface is more stable than Ga. O adatom is more favorable than Zn. These observations lead to the formation of GaN and ZnO epilayer and explain experimentally-confirmed in-plane alignment mechanisms of GaN and ZnO on ScAlMgO4 substrates. Furthermore, the polarity of GaN and ZnO surfaces on ScAlMgO4 (0001) at the initial growth stage have been explored by ab initio calculation. Theoretical studies indicate that the predominant growths of Ga-polar GaN and Zn-polar ZnO are determined by the initial growth stage.

  6. Enhanced photoelectrochemical and optical performance of ZnO films tuned by Cr doping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Salem, M.; Akir, S.; Massoudi, I.; Litaiem, Y.; Gaidi, M.; Khirouni, K.

    2017-04-01

    In this paper, pure and Cr-doped nanostructured Zinc oxide thin films were synthesized by simple and low cost co-precipitation and spin-coating method with Cr concentration varying between 0.5 and 5 at.%. Crystalline structure of the prepared films was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. XRD analysis indicated that the films were indexed as the hexagonal phase of wurtzite-type structure and demonstrated a decrease in the crystallite size with increasing Cr doping content. Cr doping revealed a significant effect on the optical measurements such as transmission and photoluminescence properties. The optical measurements indicated that Cr doping decreases the optical band gap and it has been shifted from 3.41 eV for pure ZnO film to 3.31 eV for 5 at.% Cr-doped one. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing characteristics of Cr-doped ZnO layers were investigated. Amongst all photo-anodes with different Cr dopant concentration, the 2 at.% Cr incorporated ZnO films exhibited fast response and higher photoconduction sensitivity.

  7. Alternative buffer layer development in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cells

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xin, Peipei

    interface still limited the device performance. Second, an investigation of Zn(S,O) buffer layers was completed. Zn(S,O) films were sputtered in Ar using a ZnO0.7S0.3 compound target. Zn(S,O) films had the composition close to the target with S / (S+O) ratio around 0.3. Zn(S,O) films showed the wurtzite structure with the bandgap about 3.2eV. The champion Cu(In,Ga)Se2 / Zn(S,O) cell had 12.5% efficiency and an (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 / Zn(S,O) cell achieved 13.2% efficiency. Detailed device analysis was used to study the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 absorbers, the influence of absorber surface treatments, the effects of device treatments, the sputtering damage and the Na concentration in the absorber. Finally alternative buffer layer development was applied to an innovative superstrate CIGS configuration. The superstrate structure has potential benefits of improved window layer properties, cost reduction, and the possibility to implement back reflector engineering techniques. The application of three buffer layer options - CdS, ZnO and ZnSe was studied and limitations of each were characterized. The best device achieved 8.6% efficiency with a ZnO buffer. GaxOy formation at the junction interface was the main limiting factor of this device performance. For CdS / CIGS and ZnSe / CIGS superstrate devices extensive inter-diffusion between the absorber and buffer layer under CIGS growth conditions was the critical problem. Inter-diffusion severely deteriorated the junction quality and led to poorly behaved devices, despite different efforts to optimize the fabrication process.

  8. Surface structure, optoelectronic properties and charge transport in ZnO nanocrystal/MDMO-PPV multilayer films.

    PubMed

    Lian, Qing; Chen, Mu; Mokhtar, Muhamad Z; Wu, Shanglin; Zhu, Mingning; Whittaker, Eric; O'Brien, Paul; Saunders, Brian R

    2018-05-07

    Blends of semiconducting nanocrystals and conjugated polymers continue to attract major research interest because of their potential applications in optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, photodetectors and light-emitting diodes. In this study we investigate the surface structure, morphological and optoelectronic properties of multilayer films constructed from ZnO nanocrystals (NCs) and poly[2-methoxy-5-(3',7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MDMO-PPV). The effects of layer number and ZnO concentration (C ZnO ) used on the multilayer film properties are investigated. An optimised solvent blend enabled well-controlled layers to be sequentially spin coated and the construction of multilayer films containing six ZnO NC (Z) and MDMO-PPV (M) layers (denoted as (ZM) 6 ). Contact angle data showed a strong dependence on C ZnO and indicated distinct differences in the coverage of MDMO-PPV by the ZnO NCs. UV-visible spectroscopy showed that the MDMO-PPV absorption increased linearly with the number of layers in the films and demonstrates highly tuneable light absorption. Photoluminescence spectra showed reversible quenching as well as a surprising red-shift of the MDMO-PPV emission peak. Solar cells were constructed to probe vertical photo-generated charge transport. The measurements showed that (ZM) 6 devices prepared using C ZnO = 14.0 mg mL -1 had a remarkably high open circuit voltage of ∼800 mV. The device power conversion efficiency was similar to that of a control bilayer device prepared using a much thicker MDMO-PPV layer. The results of this study provide insight into the structure-optoelectronic property relationships of new semiconducting multilayer films which should also apply to other semiconducting NC/polymer combinations.

  9. Photo-Patternable ZnO Thin Films Based on Cross-Linked Zinc Acrylate for Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Complementary Inverters.

    PubMed

    Jeong, Yong Jin; An, Tae Kyu; Yun, Dong-Jin; Kim, Lae Ho; Park, Seonuk; Kim, Yebyeol; Nam, Sooji; Lee, Keun Hyung; Kim, Se Hyun; Jang, Jaeyoung; Park, Chan Eon

    2016-03-02

    Complementary inverters consisting of p-type organic and n-type metal oxide semiconductors have received considerable attention as key elements for realizing low-cost and large-area future electronics. Solution-processed ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) have great potential for use in hybrid complementary inverters as n-type load transistors because of the low cost of their fabrication process and natural abundance of active materials. The integration of a single ZnO TFT into an inverter requires the development of a simple patterning method as an alternative to conventional time-consuming and complicated photolithography techniques. In this study, we used a photocurable polymer precursor, zinc acrylate (or zinc diacrylate, ZDA), to conveniently fabricate photopatternable ZnO thin films for use as the active layers of n-type ZnO TFTs. UV-irradiated ZDA thin films became insoluble in developing solvent as the acrylate moiety photo-cross-linked; therefore, we were able to successfully photopattern solution-processed ZDA thin films using UV light. We studied the effects of addition of a tiny amount of indium dopant on the transistor characteristics of the photopatterned ZnO thin films and demonstrated low-voltage operation of the ZnO TFTs within ±3 V by utilizing Al2O3/TiO2 laminate thin films or ion-gels as gate dielectrics. By combining the ZnO TFTs with p-type pentacene TFTs, we successfully fabricated organic/inorganic hybrid complementary inverters using solution-processed and photopatterned ZnO TFTs.

  10. Photoluminescence and photoconductivity studies on amorphous and crystalline ZnO thin films obtained by sol-gel method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Valverde-Aguilar, G.; Manríquez Zepeda, J. L.

    2015-03-01

    Amorphous and crystalline ZnO thin films were obtained by the sol-gel process. A precursor solution of ZnO was synthesized by using zinc acetate dehydrate as inorganic precursor at room temperature. The films were spin-coated on silicon and glass wafers and gelled in humid air. The films were calcined at 450 °C for 15 min to produce ZnO nanocrystals with a wurtzite structure. Crystalline ZnO film exhibits an absorption band located at 359 nm (3.4 eV). Photoconductivity technique was used to determine the charge transport mechanism on both kinds of films. Experimental data were fitted with straight lines at darkness and under illumination at 355 and 633 nm wavelengths. This indicates an ohmic behavior. The photovoltaic and photoconductivity parameters were determined from the current density versus the applied electrical field results.

  11. AZO films with Al nano-particles to improve the light extraction efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chou, Ying-Hung; Yan, Jheng-Tai; Lee, Hsin-Ying; Lee, Ching-Ting

    2008-02-01

    The co-sputtering Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films with Al nano-particles were used to increase the extraction efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Fixing the ZnO radio frequency (RF) power of 100W and changing the Al DC power from 0 to 13W, the AZO films with various Al contents can be obtained. In the experimental results, the AZO films deposited with Al DC power of 0, 4.5 and 7W do not have Al segregation. However, the segregated Al nano-particles can be found in the AZO films deposited by Al DC power of 10W and 13W. The co-sputtering 170 nm-thick AZO films with and without Al nano-particles were deposited on the transparent area of LEDs and compared the light output intensity of conventional LEDs. The light intensity of LEDs with AZO films with Al DC power 0, 4.5 and 7W increased 10% than that of conventional LEDs. This was due to the AZO film played a role of anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer. The light intensity of LEDs with AZO film deposited using Al DC power of 10W and 13W increased about 35% and 30%, respectively. It can be deduced that the output light is scattered by the Al nano-particles existed in the AZO film.

  12. Photoluminescence of transparent glass-ceramics based on ZnO nanocrystals and co-doped with Eu3+, Yb3+ ions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arzumanyan, Grigory M.; Kuznetsov, Evgeny A.; Zhilin, Aleksandr A.; Dymshits, Olga S.; Shemchuk, Daria V.; Alekseeva, Irina P.; Mudryi, Alexandr V.; Zhivulko, Vadim D.; Borodavchenko, Olga M.

    2016-12-01

    Glasses of the K2Osbnd ZnOsbnd Al2O3sbnd SiO2 system co-doped with Eu2O3 and Yb2O3 were prepared by the melt-quenching technique. Transparent zincite (ZnO) glass-ceramics were obtained by secondary heat-treatments at 680-860 °C. At 860 °C, traces of Eu oxyapatite appeared in addition to ZnO nanocrystals. The average crystal size obtained from the X-ray diffraction data was found to range between 14 and 35 nm. Absorption spectra of the initial glasses are composed of an absorption edge and absorption bands due to electronic transitions of Eu3+ ions. With heat-treatment, the absorption edge pronouncedly shifts to the visible spectral range. The luminescence properties of the glass and glass-ceramics were studied by measuring their excitation and emission spectra at 300, 78, and 4.2 K. Strong red emission of Eu3+ ions dominated by the 5D0-7F2 (612 nm) electric dipole transition was detected. Changes in the luminescence properties of the Eu3+-related excitation and emission bands were observed after heat-treatments at 680 °C and 860 °C. The ZnO nanocrystals showed both broad luminescence (400-850 nm) and free-exciton emission near 3.3 eV at room temperature. The upconversion luminescence spectrum of the initial glass was obtained under excitation of the 976 nm laser source.

  13. Electroluminescence of ordered ZnO nanorod array/p-GaN light-emitting diodes with graphene current spreading layer

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Ordered ZnO nanorod array/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been fabricated by introducing graphene as the current spreading layer, which exhibit improved electroluminescence performance by comparison to the LED using a conventional structure (indium-tin-oxide as the current spreading layer). In addition, by adjusting the diameter of ZnO nanorod array in use, the light emission of the ZnO nanorod array/p-GaN heterojunction LEDs was enhanced further. This work has great potential applications in solid-state lighting, high performance optoelectronic devices, and so on. PACS 78.60.Fi; 85.60.Jb; 78.67.Lt; 81.10.Dn PMID:25489284

  14. Electroluminescence of ordered ZnO nanorod array/p-GaN light-emitting diodes with graphene current spreading layer.

    PubMed

    Dong, Jing-Jing; Hao, Hui-Ying; Xing, Jie; Fan, Zhen-Jun; Zhang, Zi-Li

    2014-01-01

    Ordered ZnO nanorod array/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been fabricated by introducing graphene as the current spreading layer, which exhibit improved electroluminescence performance by comparison to the LED using a conventional structure (indium-tin-oxide as the current spreading layer). In addition, by adjusting the diameter of ZnO nanorod array in use, the light emission of the ZnO nanorod array/p-GaN heterojunction LEDs was enhanced further. This work has great potential applications in solid-state lighting, high performance optoelectronic devices, and so on. 78.60.Fi; 85.60.Jb; 78.67.Lt; 81.10.Dn.

  15. Strain Manipulated Magnetic Properties in ZnO and GaN Induced by Cation Vacancy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gai, Yanqin; Jiang, Jiaping; Wu, Yuxi; Tang, Gang

    2016-07-01

    The effects of isotropic strains on the magnetic properties in ZnO and GaN induced by cation vacancies are comparatively investigated by density functional theory calculations. The magnetic moments and the couplings between vacancies in different charged states are calculated as a function of strains. The modulation of strain on the magnetic properties relies on the materials and the charge states of cation vacancies in them. As the occurrence of charge transfer in ZnO: V Zn under compression, the coupling between V_{{Zn}}0 is antiferromagnetic (AFM) and it could be stabilized by strains. Tensions can strengthen the ferromagnetic (FM) coupling between V_{{Zn}}0 but weaken that of V_{{Ga}}^{ - } . The neutral V Ga are always AFM coupling under strains from -6 to +6% and could be stabilized by compressions. The interactions between V_{{Ga}}^{ - } are always FM with ignorable variations under strains; however, the FM couplings between V_{{Ga}}^{2 - } could be strengthened by compressions. These varying trends of magnetic coupling under strains are interpreted by the band coupling models. Therefore, strain-engineering provides a route to manipulate and design high Curie temperature ferromagnetism derived and mediated by intrinsic defect for spintronic applications.

  16. Electrodeposition and characterization of ZnO thin films using sodium thiosulfate as an additive for photovoltaic solar cells

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rahal, Hassiba; Kihal, Rafiaa; Affoune, Abed Mohamed; Ghers, Mokhtar; Djazi, Faycal

    2017-06-01

    Zinc oxide thin films have been grown by electrodeposition technique onto Cu and ITO-coated glass substrates from an aqueous zinc nitrate solution with addition of sodium thiosulfate at 90 °C. The effects of sodium thiosulfate on the electrochemical deposition of ZnO were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques. Deposited films were obtained at -0.60 V vs. SCE and characterized by XRD, SEM, FTIR, optical, photoelectrochemical and electrical measurements. Thickness of the deposited film was measured to be 357 nm. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the synthesized ZnO has a pure hexagonal wurtzite structure with a marked preferential orientation along (002) plane. FTIR results confirmed the presence of ZnO films at peak 558 cm-1. SEM images showed uniform, compact morphology without any cracks and films composed of large flower-like ZnO agglomerates with star-shape. Optical properties of ZnO reveal a high optical transmission (> 80 % ) and high absorption coefficient (α > {10}5 {{cm}}-1) in visible region. The optical energy band gap was found to be 3.28 eV. Photoelectrochemical measurements indicated that the ZnO films had n-type semiconductor conduction. Electrical properties of ZnO films showed a low electrical resistivity of 6.54 {{Ω }}\\cdot {cm}, carrier concentration of -1.3× {10}17 {{cm}}-3 and mobility of 7.35 cm2 V-1 s-1. Project supported by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Algeria (No. J0101520090018).

  17. Effect of precursor solutions on ZnO film via solution precursor plasma spray and corresponding gas sensing performances

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Z. X.; Ma, Y. Z.; Zhao, Y. L.; Huang, J. B.; Wang, W. Z.; Moliere, M.; Liao, H. L.

    2017-08-01

    Solution precursor plasma spraying (SPPS) as a novel thermal spray method was employed to deposit nano-structured ZnO thin film using different formulations of the precursor solution. This article focuses on the influence of the solution composition on the preferential orientation of crystal growth, on crystal size and surface morphology of the resulting ZnO films. The trend of preferential growth along (002) lattice plane of ZnO film was studied by slow scanning X-ray diffraction using a specific coefficient P(002). It appears that the thermal spray process promotes the buildup of ZnO films preferentially oriented along the c-axis. The shape of single particle tends to change from round shaped beads to hexagonal plates by increasing the volume ratio of ethanol in the solvent. Both cauliflower and honeycomb-like surface morphologies featuring high specific surface area and roughness were obtained through the SPPS process by varying solution composition. These ZnO films are hydrophobic with contact angle as high as 136°, which is seemingly associated with micro reliefs developing high surface specific area. Then the gas sensing performances of ZnO films preferentially oriented along (002) face were tentatively predicted using the "first principle calculation method" and were compared with those of conventional films that are mainly oriented along the (101) face. The (002) face displays better hydrogen adsorption capability than the (101) face with much larger resulting changes in electrical resistance. In conclusion, the c-axis oriented ZnO films obtained through SSPS have favorable performances to be used as sensitive layer in gas sensing applications.

  18. Fabrication and electrical properties of low temperature-processed thin-film-transistors with chemical-bath deposited ZnO layer.

    PubMed

    Ahn, Joo-Seob; Kwon, Ji-Hye; Yang, Heesun

    2013-06-01

    ZnO film was grown on ZnO quantum dot seed layer-coated substrate by a low-temperature chemical bath deposition, where sodium citrate serves as a complexing agent for Zn2+ ion. The ZnO film deposited under the optimal condition exhibited a highly uniform surface morphology with a thickness of approimately 30 nm. For the fabrication of thin-film-transistor with a bottom-gate structure, ZnO film was chemically deposited on the transparent substrate of a seed layer-coated SiN(x)/ITO (indium tin oxide)/glass. As-deposited ZnO channel was baked at low temperatures of 60-200 degrees C to investigate the effect of baking temperature on electrical performances. Compared to the device with 60 degrees C-baked ZnO channel, the TFT performances of one with 200 degrees C-baked channel were substantially improved, exhibiting an on-off current ratio of 3.6 x 10(6) and a saturated field-effect mobility of 0.27 cm2/V x s.

  19. Variation of microstructural and optical properties in SILAR grown ZnO thin films by thermal treatment.

    PubMed

    Valanarasu, S; Dhanasekaran, V; Chandramohan, R; Kulandaisamy, I; Sakthivelu, A; Mahalingam, T

    2013-08-01

    The influence of thermal treatment on the structural and morphological properties of the ZnO films deposited by double dip Successive ionic layer by adsorption reaction is presented. The effect of annealing temperature and time in air ambient is presented in detail. The deposited films were annealed from 200 to 400 degrees C in air and the structural properties were determined as a function of annealing temperature by XRD. The studies revealed that films were exhibiting preferential orientation along (002) plane. The other structural parameters like the crystallite size (D), micro strain (epsilon), dislocation density (delta) and stacking fault (alpha) of as-deposited and annealed ZnO films were evaluated and reported. The optical properties were also studied and the band gap of the ZnO thins films varied from 3.27 to 3.04 eV with the annealing temperature. SEM studies revealed that the hexagonal shaped grains with uniformly distributed morphology in annealed ZnO thin films. It has been envisaged using EDX analysis that the near stoichiometric composition of the film can be attained by thermal treatment during which microstructural changes do occur.

  20. Improvement of Flame-made ZnO Nanoparticulate Thick Film Morphology for Ethanol Sensing

    PubMed Central

    Liewhiran, Chaikarn; Phanichphantandast, Sukon

    2007-01-01

    ZnO nanoparticles were produced by flame spray pyrolysis using zinc naphthenate as a precursor dissolved in toluene/acetonitrile (80/20 vol%). The particles properties were analyzed by XRD, BET. The ZnO particle size and morphology was observed by SEM and HR-TEM revealing spheroidal, hexagonal, and rod-like morphologies. The crystallite sizes of ZnO spheroidal and hexagonal particles ranged from 10-20 nm. ZnO nanorods were ranged from 10-20 nm in width and 20-50 nm in length. Sensing films were produced by mixing the nanoparticles into an organic paste composed of terpineol and ethyl cellulose as a vehicle binder. The paste was doctor-bladed onto Al2O3 substrates interdigitated with Au electrodes. The morphology of the sensing films was analyzed by optical microscopy and SEM analysis. Cracking of the sensing films during annealing process was improved by varying the heating conditions. The gas sensing of ethanol (25-250 ppm) was studied at 400 °C in dry air containing SiC as the fluidized particles. The oxidation of ethanol on the surface of the semiconductor was confirmed by mass spectroscopy (MS). The effect of micro-cracks was quantitatively accounted for as a provider of extra exposed edges. The sensitivity decreased notably with increasing crack of sensing films. It can be observed that crack widths were reduced with decreasing heating rates. Crack-free of thick (5 μm) ZnO films evidently showed higher sensor signal and faster response times (within seconds) than cracked sensor. The sensor signal increased and the response time decreased with increasing ethanol concentration.

  1. Growth of ZnO(0001) on GaN(0001)/4H-SiC buffer layers by plasma-assisted hybrid molecular beam epitaxy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adolph, David; Tingberg, Tobias; Ive, Tommy

    2015-09-01

    Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy was used to grow ZnO(0001) layers on GaN(0001)/4H-SiC buffer layers deposited in the same growth chamber equipped with both N- and O-plasma sources. The GaN buffer layers were grown immediately before initiating the growth of ZnO. Using a substrate temperature of 445 °C and an O2 flow rate of 2.5 standard cubic centimeters per minute, we obtained ZnO layers with statistically smooth surfaces having a root-mean-square roughness of 0.3 nm and a peak-to-valley distance of 3 nm as revealed by atomic force microscopy. The full-width-at-half-maximum for x-ray rocking curves obtained across the ZnO(0002) and ZnO(10 1 bar 5) reflections was 198 and 948 arcsec, respectively. These values indicated that the mosaicity of the ZnO layer was comparable to the corresponding values of the underlying GaN buffer layer. Reciprocal space maps showed that the in-plane relaxation of the GaN and ZnO layers was 82% and 73%, respectively, and that the relaxation occurred abruptly during the growth. Room-temperature Hall-effect measurements revealed that the layers were inherently n-type and had an electron concentration of 1×1019 cm-3 and a Hall mobility of 51 cm2/V s.

  2. Enhanced non-enzymatic glucose biosensor of Ga-doped ZnO nanorods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Wan-Chan; Wang, Zi-Hao; Yang, Chih-Chiang; Huang, Chien-Sheng; Su, Yan-Kuin; Ruan, Jian-Long

    2017-04-01

    In this work gallium (Ga)-Doped ZnO nanorods (GZO NRs) successfully applied for the development of enzyme free glucose. GZO NRs synthesized by using the hydrothermal on ZnO seed layer was subsequently deposited onto the glass substrate. The GZO NRs electrode has peak currents increasing from 620 to 941μA with glucose concentration (6, 8 and 10 mM) in cyclic voltammograms. GZO NRs electrode sensitivity of the sensor to glucose oxidation was 33.4 (μA/mM-cm2). The GZO NRs modified electrode showed a greatly enhanced electrocatalytic property toward glucose oxidation, as well as an excellent anti-interference and a good stability.

  3. Electroless controllable growth of ZnO films and their morphology-dependent antimicrobial properties.

    PubMed

    Ruíz-Gómez, M A; Figueroa-Torres, M Z; Alonso-Lemus, I L; Vega-Becerra, O E; González-López, J R; Zaldívar-Cadena, A A

    2018-04-05

    An electroless deposition process was used to synthesize with a controlled morphology, polycrystalline ZnO on glass substrates as antimicrobial coatings. The influence of deposition temperature (T dep ) on the physicochemical and antimicrobial properties of the ZnO films was analyzed. The results indicated that a change in deposition temperature greatly affected the morphology and the degree of crystallinity of the films. Scanning electron microscope images show that the film surface is porous at a deposition temperature of 40 and 50 °C, whereas hexagonal-plate shaped morphology predominated at 60 °C and finally at 70 and 80 °C the films consisted of rod-like particles. The films showed good transparency in the visible region. All ZnO films presented notable antimicrobial activity against the gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). It was found that the antimicrobial efficiency is strongly dependent on morphology and structural properties. The best antimicrobial performance was recorded for the films consisting of rod-like morphology with a high degree of crystallinity. The procedure used in this investigation is strongly recommended for the development of functional surfaces. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. The fabrication of visible light responsive Ag-SiO2 co-doped TiO2 thin films by the sol-gel method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dam Le, Duy; Dung Dang, Thi My; Thang Chau, Vinh; Chien Dang, Mau

    2010-03-01

    In this study we have successfully deposited Ag-SiO2 co-doped TiO2 thin films on glass substrates by the sol-gel method. After being coated by a dip coating method, the film was transparent, smooth and had strong adhesion on the glass surface. The deposited film was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) to investigate its crystallization, transmittance and surface structure. The antifogging ability is explained by the contact angle of water on the surface of the glass substrates under visible-light. The obtained results show that Ag-SiO2 co-doped TiO2 film has potential applications for self cleaning and anti-bacterial ceramic tiles.

  5. Influence of a novel co-doping (Zn + F) on the physical properties of nano structured (1 1 1) oriented CdO thin films applicable for window layer of solar cell

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anitha, M.; Saravanakumar, K.; Anitha, N.; Amalraj, L.

    2018-06-01

    Un-doped and co-doped (Zn + F) cadmium oxide (CdO) thin films were prepared by modified spray pyrolysis technique using a nebulizer on glass substrates kept at 200 °C. They were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis spectroscopy, Hall Effect and photoluminescence (PL) respectively. The thin films were having thickness in the range of 520-560 nm. They were well crystalline and displayed high transparency of about >70% in the visible region. It was clearly seen from the SEM photographs that co-doping causes notable changes in the surface morphology. Electrical study exhibited the resistivity of co-doped CdO thin films drastically fell to 1.43 × 10-4 Ω-cm compared with the un-doped CdO thin film. The obtained PL spectra were well corroborated with the structural and optical studies. The high transparency, wide band gap energy and enhanced electrical properties obtained infer that Zn + F co-doped CdO thin films find application in optoelectronic devices, especially in window layer of solar cells.

  6. Anisotropic magnetism and spin-dependent transport in Co nanoparticle embedded ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, D. Y.; Zeng, Y. J.; Pereira, L. M. C.; Batuk, D.; Hadermann, J.; Zhang, Y. Z.; Ye, Z. Z.; Temst, K.; Vantomme, A.; Van Bael, M. J.; Van Haesendonck, C.

    2013-07-01

    Oriented Co nanoparticles were obtained by Co ion implantation in crystalline ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition. Transmission electron microscopy revealed the presence of elliptically shaped Co precipitates with nanometer size, which are embedded in the ZnO thin films, resulting in anisotropic magnetic behavior. The low-temperature resistance of the Co-implanted ZnO thin films follows the Efros-Shklovskii type variable-range-hopping. Large negative magnetoresistance (MR) exceeding 10% is observed in a magnetic field of 1 T at 2.5 K and the negative MR survives up to 250 K (0.3%). The negative MR reveals hysteresis as well as anisotropy that correlate well with the magnetic properties, clearly demonstrating the presence of spin-dependent transport.

  7. The properties of plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) ZnO thin films and comparison with thermal ALD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Doyoung; Kang, Hyemin; Kim, Jae-Min; Kim, Hyungjun

    2011-02-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) using oxygen plasma as a reactant and the properties were compared with those of thermal atomic layer deposition (TH-ALD) ZnO thin films. While hexagonal wurzite phase with preferential (0 0 2) orientation was obtained for both cases, significant differences were observed in various aspects of film properties including resistivity values between these two techniques. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have shown that high resistivity of PE-ALD ZnO thin films is due to the oxygen interstitials at low growth temperature of 200 °C, whose amount decreases with increasing growth temperature. Thin film transistors (TFT) using TH- and PE-ALD ZnO as an active layer were also fabricated and the device properties were evaluated comparatively.

  8. The investigation of the Cr doped ZnO thin films deposited by thermionic vacuum arc technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mohammadigharehbagh, Reza; Pat, Suat; Musaoglu, Caner; Korkmaz, Şadan; Özen, Soner

    2018-02-01

    Cr doped ZnO thin films were prepared onto glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates using thermionic vacuum arc. XRD patterns show the polycrystalline nature of the films. Cr, Zn, ZnO and Cr2O3 were detected in the layers. The mean crystallite sizes of the films were calculated about 20 nm for the films onto glass and PET substrates. The maximum dislocation density and internal strain values of the films are calculated. According to the optical analysis, the average transmittance and reflectance of the films were found to be approximately 53% and 16% for glass and PET substrates, respectively. The mean refractive index of the layer decreased to 2.15 from 2.38 for the PET substrate. The band gap values of the Cr-doped ZnO thin films were determined as 3.10 and 3.13 eV for glass and PET substrates.

  9. Interplay of dopant, defects and electronic structure in driving ferromagnetism in Co-doped oxides: TiO(2), CeO(2) and ZnO.

    PubMed

    Ali, Bakhtyar; Shah, Lubna R; Ni, C; Xiao, J Q; Shah, S Ismat

    2009-11-11

    A comprehensive study of the defects and impurity (Co)-driven ferromagnetism is undertaken in the oxide semiconductors: TiO(2), ZnO and CeO(2). The effect of magnetic (Co(2+)) and non-magnetic (Cu(2+)) impurities in conjunction with defects, such as oxygen vacancies (V(o)), have been thoroughly investigated. Analyses of the x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data reveal the incorporation of cobalt in the lattice, with no signature of cobalt segregation. It is shown that oxygen vacancies are necessary for the ferromagnetic coupling in the Co-doped oxides mentioned above. The possible exchange mechanisms responsible for the ferromagnetism are discussed in light of the energy levels of dopants in the host oxides. In addition, Co and Cu co-doped TiO(2) samples are studied in order to understand the role of point defects in establishing room temperature ferromagnetism. The parameters calculated from the bound magnetic polaron (BMP) and Jorgensen's optical electronegativity models offer a satisfactory explanation of the defect-driven ferromagnetism in the doped/co-doped samples.

  10. Characterizations of low-temperature electroluminescence from ZnO nanowire light-emitting arrays on the p-GaN layer.

    PubMed

    Lu, Tzu-Chun; Ke, Min-Yung; Yang, Sheng-Chieh; Cheng, Yun-Wei; Chen, Liang-Yi; Lin, Guan-Jhong; Lu, Yu-Hsin; He, Jr-Hau; Kuo, Hao-Chung; Huang, JianJang

    2010-12-15

    Low-temperature electroluminescence from ZnO nanowire light-emitting arrays is reported. By inserting a thin MgO current blocking layer in between ZnO nanowire and p-GaN, high-purity UV light emission at wavelength 398 nm was obtained. As the temperature is decreased, contrary to the typical GaN-based light emitting diodes, our device shows a decrease of optical output intensity. The results are associated with various carrier tunneling processes and frozen MgO defects.

  11. Effects of O2 plasma post-treatment on ZnO: Ga thin films grown by H2O-thermal ALD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Yueh-Lin; Chuang, Jia-Hao; Huang, Tzu-Hsuan; Ho, Chong-Long; Wu, Meng-Chyi

    2013-03-01

    Transparent conducting oxides have been widely employed in optoelectronic devices using the various deposition methods such as sputtering, thermal evaporator, and e-gun evaporator technologies.1-3 In this work, gallium doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Ga) thin films were grown on glass substrates via H2O-thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) at different deposition temperatures. ALD-GZO thin films were constituted as a layer-by-layer structure by stacking zinc oxides and gallium oxides. Diethylzinc (DEZ), triethylgallium (TEG) and H2O were used as zinc, gallium precursors and oxygen source, respectively. Furthermore, we investigated the influences of O2 plasma post-treatment power on the surface morphology, electrical and optical property of ZnO:Ga films. As the result of O2 plasma post-treatment, the characteristics of ZnO:Ga films exhibit a smooth surface, low resistivity, high carrier concentration, and high optical transmittance in the visible spectrum. However, the transmittance decreases with O2 plasma power in the near- and mid-infrared regions.

  12. Preparation, structural and luminescent properties of nanocrystalline ZnO films doped Ag by close space sublimation method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khomchenko, Viktoriya; Mazin, Mikhail; Sopinskyy, Mykola; Lytvyn, Oksana; Dan'ko, Viktor; Piryatinskii, Yurii; Demydiuk, Pavlo

    2018-05-01

    The simple way for silver doping of ZnO films is presented. The ZnO films were prepared by reactive rf-magnetron sputtering on silicon and sapphire substrates. Ag doping is carried out by sublimation of the Ag source located at close space at atmospheric pressure in air. Then the ZnO and ZnO-Ag films were annealed in wet media. The microstructure and optical properties of the films were compared and studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL). XRD results indicated that all the ZnO films have a polycrystalline hexagonal structure and a preferred orientation with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The annealing and Ag doping promote increasing grain's sizes and modification of grain size distribution. The effect of substrate temperature, substrate type, Ag doping and post-growth annealing of the films was studied by PL spectroscopy. The effect of Ag doping was obvious and identical for all the films, namely the wide visible bands of PL spectra are suppressed by Ag doping. The intensity of ultraviolet band increased 15 times as compared to their reference films on sapphire substrate. The ultraviolet/visible emission ratio was 20. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) for a 380 nm band was 14 nm, which is comparable with that of epitaxial ZnO. The data implies the high quality of ZnO-Ag films. Possible mechanisms to enhance UV emission are discussed.

  13. Engineering future light emitting diodes and photovoltaics with inexpensive materials: Integrating ZnO and Si into GaN-based devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bayram, C.; Shiu, K. T.; Zhu, Y.; Cheng, C. W.; Sadana, D. K.; Teherani, F. H.; Rogers, D. J.; Sandana, V. E.; Bove, P.; Zhang, Y.; Gautier, S.; Cho, C.-Y.; Cicek, E.; Vashaei, Z.; McClintock, R.; Razeghi, M.

    2013-03-01

    Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) based PV have the best fit to the solar spectrum of any alloy system and emerging LED lighting based on InGaN technology and has the potential to reduce energy consumption by nearly one half while enabling significant carbon emission reduction. However, getting the maximum benefit from GaN diode -based PV and LEDs will require wide-scale adoption. A key bottleneck for this is the device cost, which is currently dominated by the substrate (i.e. sapphire) and the epitaxy (i.e. GaN). This work investigates two schemes for reducing such costs. First, we investigated the integration of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) in InGaN-based diodes. (Successful growth of GaN on ZnO template layers (on sapphire) was illustrated. These templates can then be used as sacrificial release layers for chemical lift-off. Such an approach provides an alternative to laser lift-off for the transfer of GaN to substrates with a superior cost-performance profile, plus an added advantage of reclaiming the expensive single-crystal sapphire. It was also illustrated that substitution of low temperature n-type ZnO for n-GaN layers can combat indium leakage from InGaN quantum well active layers in inverted p-n junction structures. The ZnO overlayers can also double as transparent contacts with a nanostructured surface which enhances light in/out coupling. Thus ZnO was confirmed to be an effective GaN substitute which offers added flexibility in device design and can be used in order to simultaneously reduce the epitaxial cost and boost the device performance. Second, we investigated the use of GaN templates on patterned Silicon (100) substrates for reduced substrate cost LED applications. Controlled local metal organic chemical vapor deposition epitaxy of cubic phase GaN with on-axis Si(100) substrates was illustrated. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy techniques were used to investigate uniformity and examine the defect structure in the GaN. Our

  14. Effect of Pre-Annealing on Thermal and Optical Properties of ZnO and Al-ZnO Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saravanan, P.; Gnanavelbabu, A.; Pandiaraj, P.

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple solution route method using zinc acetate as the precursor and ethanol as the solvent. At a temperature of 60∘C, a clear homogenous solution is heated to 100∘C for ethanol evaporation. Then the obtained precursor powder is annealed at 600∘C for the formation of ZnO nanocrystalline structure. Doped ZnO particle is also prepared by using aluminum nitrate nonahydrate to produce aluminum (Al)-doped nanoparticles using the same solution route method followed by annealing. Thin film fabrication is done by air evaporation method using the polymer polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). To analyze the optical and thermal properties for undoped and doped ZnO nanocrystalline thin film by precursor annealing, characterizations such as UV, FTIR, AFM, TGA/DTA, XRD, EDAX and Photoluminescence (PL) were also taken. It was evident that precursor annealing had great influence on thermal and optical properties of thin films while ZnO and AZO film showed low crystallinity and intensity than in the powder form. TGA/DTA suggests pre-annealing effect improves the thermal stability, which ensures that Al ZnO nanoparticle can withstand at high temperature too which is the crucial advantage in the semiconductor devices. UV spectroscopy confirmed the presence of ZnO nanoparticles in the thin film by an absorbance peak observed at 359nm with an energy bandgap of 3.4eV. A peak obtained at 301nm with an energy bandgap of 4.12eV shows a blue shift due to the presence of Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles. Both ZnO and AZO bandgap increased due to precursor annealing. In this research, PL spectrum is also studied in order to determine the optical property of the nanoparticle embedded thin film. From PL spectrum, it is observed that the intensity of the doped ZnO is much more enhanced as the dopant concentration is increased to 1wt.% and 2wt.% of Al in ZnO.

  15. Fabrication of nanostructured ZnO film as a hole-conducting layer of organic photovoltaic cell

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Hyomin; Kwon, Yiseul; Choe, Youngson

    2013-05-01

    We have investigated the effect of fibrous nanostructured ZnO film as a hole-conducting layer on the performance of polymer photovoltaic cells. By increasing the concentration of zinc acetate dihydrate, the changes of performance characteristics were evaluated. Fibrous nanostructured ZnO film was prepared by sol-gel process and annealed on a hot plate. As the concentration of zinc acetate dihydrate increased, ZnO fibrous nanostructure grew from 300 to 600 nm. The obtained ZnO nanostructured fibrous films have taken the shape of a maze-like structure and were characterized by UV-visible absorption, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction techniques. The intensity of absorption bands in the ultraviolet region was increased with increasing precursor concentration. The X-ray diffraction studies show that the ZnO fibrous nanostructures became strongly (002)-oriented with increasing concentration of precursor. The bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells were fabricated using poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and indene-C60 bisadduct as active layer, and their electrical properties were investigated. The external quantum efficiency of the fabricated device increased with increasing precursor concentration.

  16. Fabrication of nanostructured ZnO film as a hole-conducting layer of organic photovoltaic cell

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    We have investigated the effect of fibrous nanostructured ZnO film as a hole-conducting layer on the performance of polymer photovoltaic cells. By increasing the concentration of zinc acetate dihydrate, the changes of performance characteristics were evaluated. Fibrous nanostructured ZnO film was prepared by sol-gel process and annealed on a hot plate. As the concentration of zinc acetate dihydrate increased, ZnO fibrous nanostructure grew from 300 to 600 nm. The obtained ZnO nanostructured fibrous films have taken the shape of a maze-like structure and were characterized by UV-visible absorption, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction techniques. The intensity of absorption bands in the ultraviolet region was increased with increasing precursor concentration. The X-ray diffraction studies show that the ZnO fibrous nanostructures became strongly (002)-oriented with increasing concentration of precursor. The bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells were fabricated using poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) and indene-C60 bisadduct as active layer, and their electrical properties were investigated. The external quantum efficiency of the fabricated device increased with increasing precursor concentration. PMID:23680100

  17. Electronic properties of Cr-N codoped rutile TiO2(110) thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Zhengwang; Zhang, Lili; Dong, Shihui; Ma, Xiaochuan; Ju, Huanxin; Zhu, Junfa; Cui, Xuefeng; Zhao, Jin; Wang, Bing

    2017-12-01

    We report our investigation on the electronic properties of Cr-N codoped rutile TiO2(110) single crystal thin films, homoepitaxially grown by pulsed-laser-deposition method, and characterized using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS), X-ray/ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (XPS/UPS), in combination with first-principles calculations. Our results show that the bandgap reduction of the TiO2(110) surface is mainly contributed by the delocalized states whose position is at 2.0 eV below the Fermi level, introduced by the substitutional codoped Cr-2N pair, which is evidenced by the accordance of the results between the STS spectra and the calculated DOS. The codoped Cr-N pair contributes the gap state at about 0.8 eV below the Fermi level, in consistent with the theoretical calculations. While, the monodoped Cr contributes the states either close to the valence band maximum or the conduction band minimum, which should not contribute to the bandgap reduction too much. Our experimental results joint with theoretical calculations provide an atomic view of the bandgap reduction of the rutile TiO2(110) surface, which indicates that the excess substitutional N atoms should be important to efficiently narrow the bandgap by introducing the Cr-2N pairs.

  18. Electromechanical coupling coefficient k15 of polycrystalline ZnO films with the c-axes lie in the substrate plane.

    PubMed

    Yanagitani, Takahiko; Mishima, Natsuki; Matsukawa, Mami; Watanabe, Yoshiaki

    2007-04-01

    The (1120) textured polycrystalline ZnO films with a high shear mode electromechanical coupling coefficient k15 are obtained by sputter deposition. An over-moded resonator, a layered structure of metal electrode film/(1120) textured ZnO piezoelectric film/metal electrode film/silica glass substrate was used to characterize k15 by a resonant spectrum method. The (1120) textured ZnO piezoelectric films with excellent crystallite c-axis alignment showed an electromechanical coupling coefficient k15 of 0.24. This value was 92% of k15 value in single-crystal (k15 = 0.26).

  19. Rational Hydrogenation for Enhanced Mobility and High Reliability on ZnO-based Thin Film Transistors: From Simulation to Experiment.

    PubMed

    Xu, Lei; Chen, Qian; Liao, Lei; Liu, Xingqiang; Chang, Ting-Chang; Chang, Kuan-Chang; Tsai, Tsung-Ming; Jiang, Changzhong; Wang, Jinlan; Li, Jinchai

    2016-03-02

    Hydrogenation is one of the effective methods for improving the performance of ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs), which originate from the fact that hydrogen (H) acts as a defect passivator and a shallow n-type dopant in ZnO materials. However, passivation accompanied by an excessive H doping of the channel region of a ZnO TFT is undesirable because high carrier density leads to negative threshold voltages. Herein, we report that Mg/H codoping could overcome the trade-off between performance and reliability in the ZnO TFTs. The theoretical calculation suggests that the incorporation of Mg in hydrogenated ZnO decrease the formation energy of interstitial H and increase formation energy of O-vacancy (VO). The experimental results demonstrate that the existence of the diluted Mg in hydrogenated ZnO TFTs could be sufficient to boost up mobility from 10 to 32.2 cm(2)/(V s) at a low carrier density (∼2.0 × 10(18) cm(-3)), which can be attributed to the decreased electron effective mass by surface band bending. The all results verified that the Mg/H codoping can significantly passivate the VO to improve device reliability and enhance mobility. Thus, this finding clearly points the way to realize high-performance metal oxide TFTs for low-cost, large-volume, flexible electronics.

  20. Effect of Co and O defects on ferromagnetism in Co-doped ZnO: An X-ray absorption spectroscopic investigation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singhal, Rishi K.; Jakhar, Narendra; Samariya, A.; Dolia, S. N.; Kumar, Sudhish

    2018-02-01

    Understanding of origin of ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic oxides (DMO's) has become one of the most challenging research problems in condensed matter physics. Here we are reporting a detailed study of magnetic properties and electronic structure of two 5% Co-doped ZnO samples (the as-prepared sample Zn0.95Co0.05O and the hydrogenated sample Zn0.95Co0.05O:H). The as-prepared sample is found to be paramagnetic while through hydrogenation, we observed inducement of remarkable ferromagnetism in it. The H-mediated magnetic transition is accompanied by electronic structure modifications with no structural deviations. To get in-depth information into electronic structure correlations of the observed ferromagnetism, we have investigated their electronic properties in detail. For this purpose, we have employed the site-selective and element-sensitive X-ray-absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in the vicinity of the Cobalt L2,3 edge, the oxygen K edge, and the Zinc L3 edge using synchrotron radiation. The Co L2,3 edge spectra clearly show that Co dopants reside at the Zn sites for both these samples and that they are tetrahedrally coordinated with the ligand O atoms. Very minor changes are observed in the Zn L3 edge spectra. However, the O 1s edge spectra display dominant additional components in the ferromagnetic hydrogenated sample Zn0.95Co0.05O:H, not observed in the as-prepared non-magnetic sample Zn0.95Co0.05O. We conclude that the observed spectral features can be attributed to the presence of O vacancies and the hybridization of Co 3d states with O 2p vacancy states. These two factors together are likely to play important role in inducement of ferromagnetic ordering in this Co-doped ZnO system. However, which of these two weighs more in this mechanism, cannot be pinpointed and more studies are required in this regard.

  1. Characteristics of surface acoustic waves in (11\\bar 2 0)ZnO film/ R-sapphire substrate structures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yan; Zhang, ShuYi; Xu, Jing; Xie, YingCai; Lan, XiaoDong

    2018-02-01

    (11\\bar 2 0)ZnO film/ R-sapphire substrate structure is promising for high frequency acoustic wave devices. The propagation characteristics of SAWs, including the Rayleigh waves along [0001] direction and Love waves along [1ī00] direction, are investigated by using 3 dimensional finite element method (3D-FEM). The phase velocity ( v p), electromechanical coupling coefficient ( k 2), temperature coefficient of frequency ( TCF) and reflection coefficient ( r) of Rayleigh wave and Love wave devices are theoretically analyzed. Furthermore, the influences of ZnO films with different crystal orientation on SAW properties are also investigated. The results show that the 1st Rayleigh wave has an exceedingly large k 2 of 4.95% in (90°, 90°, 0°) (11\\bar 2 0)ZnO film/ R-sapphire substrate associated with a phase velocity of 5300 m/s; and the 0th Love wave in (0°, 90°, 0°) (11\\bar 2 0)ZnO film/ R-sapphire substrate has a maximum k 2 of 3.86% associated with a phase velocity of 3400 m/s. And (11\\bar 2 0)ZnO film/ R-sapphire substrate structures can be used to design temperature-compensated and wide-band SAW devices. All of the results indicate that the performances of SAW devices can be optimized by suitably selecting ZnO films with different thickness and crystal orientations deposited on R-sapphire substrates.

  2. Nonlinear refraction of Nd3+-Li+ co-doped CdS-PVP nanostructure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Talwatkar, S. S.; Sunatkari, A. L.; Tamgadge, Y. S.; Muley, G. G.

    2018-05-01

    Third-order optical nonlinearity of the co-doped CdS nanoparticles embedded in polymer thin films is studied with the Z-scan technique with 632.8 nm excitation using a cw laser. The results show that the co-doped CdS nanocomposite film exhibits enhanced negative nonlinear refractive index in the order of n2 ≈ 10-5 cm2/W, as compared to the undoped CdS nanoparticles. Nonlinear refractive index of co-doped CdS-PVP thin film are found maximum for the sample doped with 5 wt% of Nd3+-Li+ concentration. The underlying mechanism is discussed.

  3. Superior environment resistance of quartz crystal microbalance with anatase TiO2/ZnO nanorod composite films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qiang, Wei; Wei, Li; Shaodan, Wang; Yu, Bai

    2015-08-01

    The precise measurement of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) in the detection and weighing of organic gas molecules is achieved due to excellent superhydrophobicity of a deposited film composite. Photocatalysis is utilized as a method for the self-cleaning of organic molecules on the QCM for extended long-term stability in the precision of the instrument. In this paper, ZnO nanorod array is prepared via in situ methods on the QCM coated with Au film via hydrothermal process. Subsequently, a TiO2/ZnO composite film is synthesized by surface modification with TiO2 via sol-gel methods. Results show the anatase TiO2/ZnO nanorod composite film with a sharp, pencil-like structure exhibiting excellent superhydrophobicity (water contact angle of 155°), non-sticking water properties, and an autonomous cleaning property under UV irradiation. The anatase TiO2/ZnO nanorod composite film facilitates the precise measurement and extended lifetime of the QCM for the detection of organic gas molecules.

  4. The initial stages of ZnO atomic layer deposition on atomically flat In0.53Ga0.47As substrates.

    PubMed

    Skopin, Evgeniy V; Rapenne, Laetitia; Roussel, Hervé; Deschanvres, Jean-Luc; Blanquet, Elisabeth; Ciatto, Gianluca; Fong, Dillon D; Richard, Marie-Ingrid; Renevier, Hubert

    2018-06-21

    InGaAs is one of the III-V active semiconductors used in modern high-electron-mobility transistors or high-speed electronics. ZnO is a good candidate material to be inserted as a tunneling insulator layer at the metal-semiconductor junction. A key consideration in many modern devices is the atomic structure of the hetero-interface, which often ultimately governs the electronic or chemical process of interest. Here, a complementary suite of in situ synchrotron X-ray techniques (fluorescence, reflectivity and absorption) as well as modeling is used to investigate both structural and chemical evolution during the initial growth of ZnO by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on In0.53Ga0.47As substrates. Prior to steady-state growth behavior, we discover a transient regime characterized by two stages. First, substrate-inhibited ZnO growth takes place on InGaAs terraces. This leads eventually to the formation of a 1 nm-thick, two-dimensional (2D) amorphous layer. Second, the growth behavior and its modeling suggest the occurrence of dense island formation, with an aspect ratio and surface roughness that depends sensitively on the growth condition. Finally, ZnO ALD on In0.53Ga0.47As is characterized by 2D steady-state growth with a linear growth rate of 0.21 nm cy-1, as expected for layer-by-layer ZnO ALD.

  5. Structure and thermoelectric properties of Al-doped ZnO films prepared by thermal oxidization under high magnetic field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Shiying; Peng, Sunjuan; Ma, Jun; Li, Guojian; Qin, Xuesi; Li, Mengmeng; Wang, Qiang

    2017-04-01

    This paper studies the effects of high magnetic field (HMF) on the structure, optical and thermoelectric properties of the doped ZnO thin films. The results show that both Al dopant and application of HMF can affect the crystal structure, surface morphology, elemental distribution and so on. The particles of the thin films become small and regular by doping Al. The ZnO films oxidized from the Au/Zn bilayer have needle structure. The ZnO films oxidized from the Au/Zn-Al bilayer transform to spherical from hexagonal due to the application of HMF. The transmittance decreases with doping Al because of the opaque of Al element and decreases with the application of HMF due to the dense structure obtained under HMF. Electrical resistivity (ρ) of the ZnO films without Al decreases with increasing measurement temperature (T) and is about 1.5 × 10-3 Ω·m at 210 °C. However, the ρ of the Al-doped ZnO films is less than 10-5 Ω·m. The Seebeck coefficient (S) of the films oxidized from the Au/Zn-Al films reduces with increasing T. The S values oxidized under 0 T and 12 T conditions are 2.439 μV/K and -3.415 μV/K at 210 °C, respectively. Power factor reaches the maximum value (3.198 × 10-4 W/m·K2) at 210 °C for the film oxidized under 12 T condition. These results indicate that the Al dopant and the application of HMF can be used to control structure and thermoelectric properties of doped ZnO films.

  6. A comparison of ZnO films deposited on indium tin oxide and soda lime glass under identical conditions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Deka, Angshuman; Nanda, Karuna Kar

    2013-06-15

    ZnO films have been grown via a vapour phase transport (VPT) on soda lime glass (SLG) and indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated glass. ZnO film on ITO had traces of Zn and C which gives them a dark appearance while that appears yellowish-white on SLG. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies confirm the traces of C in the form of C-O. The photoluminescence studies reveal a prominent green luminescence band for ZnO film on ITO.

  7. Hydrothermal-electrochemical growth of heterogeneous ZnO: Co films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yilmaz, Ceren; Unal, Ugur

    2017-10-01

    This study demonstrates the preparation of heterogeneous ZnO: Co nanostructures via hydrothermal-electrochemical deposition at 130 °C and -1.1 V (vs Ag/AgCl (satd)) in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)-H2O mixture. Under the stated conditions, ZnO: Co nanostructures grow preferentially along (002) direction. Strength of directional growth progressively increases with the increasing concentration of Co(II) in the deposition bath. Films are composed of hexagonal Wurtzite ZnO, metallic cobalt, and mixed cobalt oxide on the surface and cobalt(II) oxide in deeper levels. Increasing the Co(II) concentration in the deposition bath results in different morphological features as well as phase separation. Platelets, sponge-like structures, cobalt-rich spheres, microislands of cobalt-rich spheres which are interconnected by ZnO network can be synthesized by adjusting [Co(II)]: [Zn(II)] ratio. Growth mechanisms giving rise to these particular structures, surface morphology, crystal structure, phase purity, chemical binding characteristics, and optical properties of the deposits are discussed in detail.

  8. Microstructure and Optical Properties of Nonpolar m-Plane GaN Films Grown on m-Plane Sapphire by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wei, Tongbo; Duan, Ruifei; Wang, Junxi; Li, Jinmin; Huo, Ziqiang; Yang, Jiankun; Zeng, Yiping

    2008-05-01

    Thick nonpolar (1010) GaN layers were grown on m-plane sapphire substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) using magnetron sputtered ZnO buffers, while semipolar (1013) GaN layers were obtained by the conventional two-step growth method using the same substrate. The in-plane anisotropic structural characteristics and stress distribution of the epilayers were revealed by high resolution X-ray diffraction and polarized Raman scattering measurements. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images revealed that the striated surface morphologies correlated with the basal plane stacking faults for both (1010) and (1013) GaN films. The m-plane GaN surface showed many triangular-shaped pits aligning uniformly with the tips pointing to the c-axis after etching in boiled KOH, whereas the oblique hillocks appeared on the semipolar epilayers. In addition, the dominant emission at 3.42 eV in m-plane GaN films displayed a red shift with respect to that in semipolar epilayers, maybe owing to the different strain states present in the two epitaxial layers.

  9. Preparation and characterization of ALD deposited ZnO thin films studied for gas sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boyadjiev, S. I.; Georgieva, V.; Yordanov, R.; Raicheva, Z.; Szilágyi, I. M.

    2016-11-01

    Applying atomic layer deposition (ALD), very thin zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited on quartz resonators, and their gas sensing properties were studied using the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) method. The gas sensing of the ZnO films to NO2 was tested in the concentration interval between 10 and 5000 ppm. On the basis of registered frequency change of the QCM, for each concentration the sorbed mass was calculated. Further characterization of the films was carried out by various techniques, i.e. by SEM-EDS, XRD, ellipsometry, and FTIR spectroscopy. Although being very thin, the films were gas sensitive to NO2 already at room temperature and could register very well as low concentrations as 100 ppm, while the sorption was fully reversible. Our results for very thin ALD ZnO films show that the described fast, simple and cost-effective technology could be implemented for producing gas sensors working at room temperature and being capable to detect in real time low concentrations of NO2.

  10. Physical Property Evaluation of ZnO Thin Film Fabricated by Low-Temperature Process for Flexible Transparent TFT.

    PubMed

    Khafe, Adie Bin Mohd; Watanabe, Hiraku; Yamauchi, Hiroshi; Kuniyoshi, Shigekazu; Iizuka, Masaaki; Sakai, Masatoshi; Kudo, Kazuhiro

    2016-04-01

    The usual silicon-based display back planes require fairly high process temperature and thus the development of a low temperature process is needed on flexible plastic substrates. A new type of flexible organic light emitting transistor (OLET) had been proposed and investigated in the previous work. By using ultraviolet/ozone (UV/O3) assisted thermal treatments on wet processed zinc oxide field effect transistor (ZnO-FET), through low-process temperature, ZnO-FETs were fabricated which succeeded to achieve target drain current value and mobility. In this study, physical property evaluation of ZnO was conducted in term of their crystallinity, the increase composition of ZnO formed inside the thin film and the decrease of the carbon impurities originated from aqueous solution of the ZnO itself. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) evaluation showed UV/03 assisted thermal treatment has no obvious effect towards crystallinity of ZnO in the range of low process temperature. Moreover, through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) evaluation and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy evaluation, more carbon impurities disappeared from the ZnO thin film and the increase of composition amount of ZnO, when the thin film was subjected to UV/O3 assisted thermal treatment. Therefore, UV/O3 assisted thermal treatment contributed in carbon impurities elimination and accelerate ZnO formation in ZnO thin film, which led to the improvement in the electrical property of ZnO-FET in the low-process temperature.

  11. Pure ultraviolet emission from ZnO quantum dots-based/GaN heterojunction diodes by MgO interlayer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Cheng; Liang, Renli; Chen, Jingwen; Zhang, Jun; Wang, Shuai; Zhao, Chong; Zhang, Wei; Dai, Jiangnan; Chen, Changqing

    2017-07-01

    We demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of ZnO/GaN-based heterojunction light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by using air-stable and solution-processable ZnO quantum dots (QDs) with a thin MgO interlayer acting as an electron blocking layer (EBL). The ZnO QDs/MgO/ p-GaN heterojunction can only display electroluminescence (EL) characteristic in reverse bias regime. Under sufficient reverse bias, a fairly pure ultraviolet EL emission located at 370 nm deriving from near band edge of ZnO with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 8.3 nm had been obtained, while the deep-level emission had been almost totally suppressed. The EL origination and corresponding carrier transport mechanisms were investigated qualitatively in terms of photoluminescence (PL) results and energy band diagram.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

  12. White Electroluminescence Using ZnO Nanotubes/GaN Heterostructure Light-Emitting Diode

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    We report the fabrication of heterostructure white light–emitting diode (LED) comprised of n-ZnO nanotubes (NTs) aqueous chemically synthesized on p-GaN substrate. Room temperature electroluminescence (EL) of the LED demonstrates strong broadband white emission spectrum consisting of predominating peak centred at 560 nm and relatively weak violet–blue emission peak at 450 nm under forward bias. The broadband EL emission covering the whole visible spectrum has been attributed to the large surface area and high surface states of ZnO NTs produced during the etching process. In addition, comparison of the EL emission colour quality shows that ZnO nanotubes have much better quality than that of the ZnO nanorods. The colour-rendering index of the white light obtained from the nanotubes was 87, while the nanorods-based LED emit yellowish colour. PMID:20672120

  13. Effect of copper doping on the photocatalytic activity of ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saidani, T.; Zaabat, M.; Aida, M. S.; Boudine, B.

    2015-12-01

    In the present work, we prepared undoped and copper doped ZnO thin films by the sol-gel dip coating method on glass substrates from zinc acetate dissolved in a solution of ethanol. The objective of our work is to study the effect of Cu doping with different concentrations on structural, morphological, optical properties and photocatalytic activity of ZnO thin films. For this purpose, we have used XRD to study the structural properties, and AFM to determine the morphology of the surface of the ZnO thin films. The optical properties and the photocatalytic degradation of the films were examined by UV-visibles spectrophotometer. The Tauc method was used to estimate the optical band gap. The XRD spectra indicated that the films have an hexagonal wurtzite structure, which gradually deteriorated with increasing Cu concentration. The results showed that the incorporation of Cu decreases the crystallite size. The AFM study showed that an increase of the concentration of Cu causes the decrease of the surface roughness, which passes from 20.2 for Un-doped ZnO to 12.16 nm for doped ZnO 5 wt% Cu. Optical measurements have shown that all the deposited films show good optical transmittance (77%-92%) in the visible region and increases the optical gap with increasing Cu concentration. The presence of copper from 1% to 5 wt% in the ZnO thin films is found to decelerate the photocatalytic process.

  14. The epitaxial growth of wurtzite ZnO films on LiNbO 3 (0 0 0 1) substrates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yin, J.; Liu, Z. G.; Liu, H.; Wang, X. S.; Zhu, T.; Liu, J. M.

    2000-12-01

    ZnO epitaxial films were deposited on LiNbO 3 (0 0 0 1) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The smaller lattice misfit (-8.5%) between ZnO along <1 0 1¯ 0>- direction and LiNbO 3 (0 0 0 1) along <1 1 2¯ 0>- direction, as compared with that in the case of normally used sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrates, favored the epitaxial growth of ZnO films. The transmittance spectra of ZnO films deposited in vacuum after annealed in pure oxygen show a sharp absorption edge at 375.6 nm (E g=3.31 eV) .

  15. Effect of interface voids on electroluminescence colors for ZnO microdisk/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mo, Ran; Choi, Ji Eun; Kim, Hyeong Jin; Jeong, Junseok; Kim, Jong Chan; Kim, Yong-Jin; Jeong, Hu Young; Hong, Young Joon

    2017-10-01

    This study investigates the influence of voids on the electroluminescence (EL) emission color of ZnO microdisk/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes (LEDs). For this study, position-controlled microdisk arrays were fabricated on patterned p-GaN via wet chemical epitaxy of ZnO, and specifically, the use of trisodium citrate dihydrate (TCD) yielded high-density voids at the bottom of the microdisk. Greenish yellow or whitish blue EL was emitted from the microdisk LEDs formed with or without TCD, respectively, at reverse-bias voltages. Such different EL colors were found to be responsible for the relative EL intensity ratio between indigo and yellow emission peaks, which were originated from radiative recombination at p-GaN and ZnO, respectively. The relative EL intensity between dichromatic emissions is discussed in terms of (i) junction edge effect provoked by interfacial voids and (ii) electron tunneling probability depending on the depletion layer geometry.

  16. Synthesis Structural and Optical Properties Of (Co, Al) co-doped ZnO Nano Particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Swapna, P.; Venkatramana Reddy, S.

    2018-02-01

    We prepared (Co, Al) co-doped ZnO nanostructures using the method chemical co-precipitation successfully, at room temperature using PEG (Poly ethylene glycol) as stabilizing agent. Samples are prepared with different concentrations by keeping aluminium at 5 mol percent constant and varying the concentration of cobalt from 1 to 5 mol percent. After the preparation all the samples are carefully subjected to characterizations such as XRD, SEM with EDS, TEM, PL and UV-VIS-NIR. XRD pattern shows that all the samples possess hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure having no secondary phases pertaining to Al or cobalt, which shows successful dissolution of the dopents. TEM results shows the accurate size of particles and is confirmed the XRD data. SEM images of all the samples shows that particles are in nearly spherical shape, EDS spectrum reveals that incorporation of cobalt and aluminum in host lattice. PL spectrum shows that all the samples containing two prominent peaks centered at 420 nm and 446 nm. UV-VIS-NIR spectra has shown three absorptions peaks in the range of wavelength 550 nm to 700 nm, which are ascribed as typical d-d transitions of cobalt ions.

  17. Near band edge emission characteristics of sputtered nano-crystalline ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kunj, Saurabh; Sreenivas, K.

    2016-05-01

    Sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited on unheated glass substrate under different sputtering gas mixtures (Ar+O2) have been investigated using X-ray diffraction and photo luminescence spectroscopy. Earlier reported studies on ZnO films prepared by different techniques exhibit either a sharp/broad near band edge (NBE) emission peak depending on the crystalline quality of the film. In the present study zinc oxide films, grown on unheated substrates, are seen to possess a preferred (002) orientation with a microstructure consisting of clustered nano-sized crystallites. The splitting in the near band edge emission (NBE) into three characteristic peaks is attributed to quantum confinement effect, and is observed specifically under an excitation of 270 nm. Deep level emission (DLE) in the range 400 to 700 nm is not observed indicating absence of deep level radiative defects.

  18. Influence of Fe doping on the structural, optical and acetone sensing properties of sprayed ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Prajapati, C.S.; Kushwaha, Ajay; Sahay, P.P., E-mail: dr_ppsahay@rediffmail.com

    2013-07-15

    Graphical abstract: All the films are found to be polycrystalline ZnO possessing hexagonal wurtzite structure. The intensities of all the peaks are diminished strongly in the Fe-doped films, indicating their lower crystallinity as compared to the undoped ZnO film. The average crystallite size decreases from 35.21 nm (undoped sample) to 15.43 nm (1 at% Fe-doped sample). - Highlights: • Fe-doped ZnO films show smaller crystallinity with crystallite size: 15–26 nm. • Optical band gap in ZnO films decreases on Fe doping. • Fe-doped films exhibit the normal dispersion for the wavelength range 450–600 nm. • PL spectra of the Fe-dopedmore » films show quenching of the broad green-orange emission. • Acetone response of the Fe-doped films increases considerably at 300 °C. - Abstract: The ZnO thin films (undoped and Fe-doped) deposited by chemical spray pyrolysis technique have been analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results show that all the films possess hexagonal wurtzite structure of zinc oxide having crystallite sizes in the range 15–36 nm. On 1 at% Fe doping, the surface roughness of the film increases which favors the adsorption of atmospheric oxygen on the film surface and thereby increase in the gas response. Optical studies reveal that the band gap decreases due to creation of some defect energy states below the conduction band edge, arising out of the lattice disorder in the doped films. The refractive index of the films decreases on Fe doping and follows the Cauchy relation of normal dispersion. Among all the films examined, the 1 at% Fe-doped film exhibits the maximum response (∼72%) at 300 °C for 100 ppm concentration of acetone in air.« less

  19. Enhanced Performance in Al-Doped ZnO Based Transparent Flexible Transparent Thin-Film Transistors Due to Oxygen Vacancy in ZnO Film with Zn-Al-O Interfaces Fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition.

    PubMed

    Li, Yang; Yao, Rui; Wang, Huanhuan; Wu, Xiaoming; Wu, Jinzhu; Wu, Xiaohong; Qin, Wei

    2017-04-05

    Highly conductive and optical transparent Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin film composed of ZnO with a Zn-Al-O interface was fabricated by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. The as-prepared AZO thin film exhibits excellent electrical and optical properties with high stability and compatibility with temperature-sensitive flexible photoelectronic devices; film resistivity is as low as 5.7 × 10 -4 Ω·cm, the carrier concentration is high up to 2.2 × 10 21 cm -3 . optical transparency is greater than 80% in a visible range, and the growth temperature is below 150 °C on the PEN substrate. Compared with the conventional AZO film containing by a ZnO-Al 2 O 3 interface, we propose that the underlying mechanism of the enhanced electrical conductivity for the current AZO thin film is attributed to the oxygen vacancies deficiency derived from the free competitive growth mode of Zn-O and Al-O bonds in the Zn-Al-O interface. The flexible transparent transistor based on this AZO electrode exhibits a favorable threshold voltage and I on /I off ratio, showing promising for use in high-resolution, fully transparent, and flexible display applications.

  20. ZnO/p-GaN heterostructure for solar cells and the effect of ZnGa2O4 interlayer on their performance.

    PubMed

    Nam, Seung Yong; Choi, Yong Seok; Lee, Ju Ho; Park, Seong Ju; Lee, Jeong Yong; Lee, Dong Seon

    2013-01-01

    We report the usage of ZnO material as an alternative for n-GaN for realizing III-nitride based solar cell. The fabricated solar cell shows large turn-on voltage of around 8 volts and a rapid decrease of photocurrent at low bias voltage under darkness and 1-sun illumination conditions, respectively. This phenomenon can be attributed to the formation of high-resistive ultra-thin layers at the ZnO/ p-GaN junction interface during high temperature deposition. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies carried out on the grown samples reveals that the ultra-thin layer consists of ZnGa2O4. It is found that the presence of insulating ZnGa2O4 film is detrimental in the performance of proposed heterostructure for solar cells.

  1. ZnO and MgZnO Nanocrystalline Flexible Films: Optical and Material Properties

    DOE PAGES

    Huso, Jesse; Morrison, John L.; Che, Hui; ...

    2011-01-01

    An emore » merging material for flexible UV applications is Mg x Zn 1 − x O which is capable of tunable bandgap and luminescence in the UV range of ~3.4 eV–7.4 eV depending on the composition x . Studies on the optical and material characteristics of ZnO and Mg 0.3 Zn 0.7 O nanocrystalline flexible films are presented. The analysis indicates that the ZnO and Mg 0.3 Zn 0.7 O have bandgaps of 3.34 eV and 4.02 eV, respectively. The photoluminescence (PL) of the ZnO film was found to exhibit a structural defect-related emission at ~3.316 eV inherent to the nanocrystalline morphology. The PL of the Mg 0.3 Zn 0.7 O film exhibits two broad peaks at 3.38 eV and at 3.95 eV that are discussed in terms of the solubility limit of the ZnO-MgO alloy system. Additionally, external deformation of the film did not have a significant impact on its properties as indicated by the Raman LO-mode behavior, making these films attractive for UV flexible applications.« less

  2. Fabrication and Characterization of Fully Transparent ZnO Thin-Film Transistors and Self-Switching Nano-Diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, Y.; Ashida, K.; Sasaki, S.; Koyama, M.; Maemoto, T.; Sasa, S.; Kasai, S.; Iñiguez-de-la-Torre, I.; González, T.

    2015-10-01

    Fully transparent zinc oxide (ZnO) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) and a new type of rectifiers calls self-switching nano-diodes (SSDs) were fabricated on glass substrates at room temperature by using low resistivity and transparent conducting Al- doped ZnO (AZO) thin-films. The deposition conditions of AZO thin-films were optimized with pulsed laser deposition (PLD). AZO thin-films on glass substrates were characterized and the transparency of 80% and resistivity with 1.6*10-3 Ωcm were obtained of 50 nm thickness. Transparent ZnO-TFTs were fabricated on glass substrates by using AZO thin-films as electrodes. A ZnO-TFT with 2 μm long gate device exhibits a transconductance of 400 μS/mm and an ON/OFF ratio of 2.8*107. Transparent ZnO-SSDs were also fabricated by using ZnO based materials and clear diode-like characteristics were observed.

  3. Fabrication of thin ZnO films with wide-range tuned optical properties by reactive magnetron sputtering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davydova, A.; Tselikov, G.; Dilone, D.; Rao, K. V.; Kabashin, A. V.; Belova, L.

    2018-02-01

    We report the manufacturing of thin zinc oxide films by reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature, and examine their structural and optical properties. We show that the partial oxygen pressure in DC mode can have dramatic effect on absorption and refractive index (RI) of the films in a broad spectral range. In particular, the change of the oxygen pressure from 7% to 5% can lead to either conventional crystalline ZnO films having low absorption and characteristic descending dependence of RI from 2.4-2.7 RIU in the visible to 1.8-2 RIU in the near-infrared (1600 nm) range, or to untypical films, composed of ZnO nano-crystals embedded into amorphous matrix, exhibiting unexpectedly high absorption in the visible-infrared region and ascending dependence of RI with values varying from 1.5 RIU in the visible to 4 RIU in the IR (1600 nm), respectively. Untypical optical characteristics in the second case are explained by defects in ZnO structure arising due to under-oxidation of ZnO crystals. We also show that the observed defect-related film structure remains stable even after annealing of films under relatively high temperatures (30 min under 450 °C). We assume that both types of films can be of importance for photovoltaic (as contact or active layers, respectively), as well as for chemical or biological sensing, optoelectronics etc.

  4. P-type single-crystalline ZnO films obtained by (N,O) dual implantation through dynamic annealing process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Zhiyuan; Huang, Jingyun; Chen, Shanshan; Pan, Xinhua; Chen, Lingxiang; Ye, Zhizhen

    2016-12-01

    Single-crystalline ZnO films were grown on a-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy technique. The films have been implanted with fixed fluence of 120 keV N and 130 keV O ions at 460 °C. Hall measurements show that the dually-implanted single-crystalline ZnO films exhibit p-type characteristics with hole concentration in the range of 2.1 × 1018-1.1 × 1019 cm-3, hole mobilities between 1.6 and 1.9 cm2 V-1 s-1, and resistivities in the range of 0.353-1.555 Ω cm. The ZnO films exhibit (002) (c-plane) orientation as identified by the X-ray diffraction pattern. It is confirmed that N ions were effectively implanted by SIMS results. Raman spectra, polarized Raman spectra, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results reflect that the concentration of oxygen vacancies is reduced, which is attributed to O ion implantation. It is concluded that N and O implantation and dynamic annealing play a critical role in forming p-type single-crystalline ZnO films.

  5. Ultraviolet/blue light-emitting diodes based on single horizontal ZnO microrod/GaN heterojunction

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    We report electroluminescence (EL) from single horizontal ZnO microrod (MR) and p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes under forward and reverse bias. EL spectra were composed of two blue emissions centered at 431 and 490 nm under forward biases, but were dominated by a ultraviolet (UV) emission located at 380 nm from n-ZnO MR under high reverse biases. Light-output-current characteristic of the UV emission reveals that the rate of radiative recombination is faster than that of the nonradiative recombination. Highly efficient ZnO excitonic recombination at reverse bias is caused by electrons tunneling from deep-level states near the n-ZnO/p-GaN interface to the conduction band in n-ZnO. PMID:25232299

  6. Ultraviolet/blue light-emitting diodes based on single horizontal ZnO microrod/GaN heterojunction.

    PubMed

    Du, Chia-Fong; Lee, Chen-Hui; Cheng, Chao-Tsung; Lin, Kai-Hsiang; Sheu, Jin-Kong; Hsu, Hsu-Cheng

    2014-01-01

    We report electroluminescence (EL) from single horizontal ZnO microrod (MR) and p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes under forward and reverse bias. EL spectra were composed of two blue emissions centered at 431 and 490 nm under forward biases, but were dominated by a ultraviolet (UV) emission located at 380 nm from n-ZnO MR under high reverse biases. Light-output-current characteristic of the UV emission reveals that the rate of radiative recombination is faster than that of the nonradiative recombination. Highly efficient ZnO excitonic recombination at reverse bias is caused by electrons tunneling from deep-level states near the n-ZnO/p-GaN interface to the conduction band in n-ZnO.

  7. Effect of self-organization, defects, impurities, and autocatalytic processes on the parameters of ZnO films and nanorods

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mezdrogina, M. M., E-mail: Margaret.M@mail.ioffe.ru; Eremenko, M. V.; Levitskii, V. S.

    The effects of the parameters of ZnO-film deposition onto different substrates using the method of ac magnetron sputtering in a gas mixture of argon and oxygen hare studied. The phenomenon of self-organization is observed, which leads to invariability of the surface morphology of the ZnO films upon a variation in the substrate materials and deposition parameters. The parameters of the macro- and micro-photoluminescence spectra of the films differ insignificantly from the parameters of the photoluminescence spectra of bulk ZnO crystals obtained by the method of hydrothermal growth. The presence of intense emission with a narrow full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) inmore » different regions of the spectrum allows ZnO films obtained by magnetron sputtering doped with rare-earth metal impurities (REIs) to be considered as a promising material for the creation of optoelectronic devices working in a broad spectral range. The possibility of the implementation of magnetic ordering upon legierung with REIs significantly broadens the functional possibilities of ZnO films. The parameters of the photoluminescence spectra of ZnO nanorods are determined by their geometrical parameters and by the concentration and type of the impurities introduced.« less

  8. Defect characterization and magnetic properties in un-doped ZnO thin film annealed in a strong magnetic field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ning, Shuai; Zhan, Peng; Wang, Wei-Peng; Li, Zheng-Cao; Zhang, Zheng-Jun

    2014-12-01

    Highly c-axis oriented un-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films, each with a thickness of ~ 100 nm, are deposited on Si (001) substrates by pulsed electron beam deposition at a temperature of ~ 320 °C, followed by annealing at 650 °C in argon in a strong magnetic field. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), positron annihilation analysis (PAS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) characterizations suggest that the major defects generated in these ZnO films are oxygen vacancies. Photoluminescence (PL) and magnetic property measurements indicate that the room-temperature ferromagnetism in the un-doped ZnO film originates from the singly ionized oxygen vacancies whose number depends on the strength of the magnetic field applied in the thermal annealing process. The effects of the magnetic field on the defect generation in the ZnO films are also discussed.

  9. Deposition of undoped and Al doped ZnO thin films using RF magnetron sputtering and study of their structural, optical and electrical properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Parvathy Venu, M.; Shrisha B., V.; Balakrishna, K. M.; Naik, K. Gopalakrishna

    2017-05-01

    Undoped ZnO and Al doped ZnO thin films were deposited on glass and p-Si(100) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering technique at room temperature using homemade targets. ZnO target containing 5 at% of Al2O3 as doping source was used for the growth of Al doped ZnO thin films. XRD revealed that the films have hexagonal wurtzite structure with high crystallinity. Morphology and chemical composition of the films have been indicated by FESEM and EDAX studies. A blue shift of the band gap energy and higher optical transmittance has been observed in the case of Al doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) thin films with respect to the ZnO thin films. The as deposited films on p-Si were used to fabricate n-ZnO/p-Si(100) and n-ZnO:Al/p-Si(100) heterojunction diodes and their room temperature current-voltage characteristics were studied.

  10. Characterization of N,C-codoped TiO 2 films prepared by reactive DC magnetron sputtering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Kee-Rong; Hung, Chung-Hsuang

    2009-12-01

    Titanium dioxide (TiO 2) films are deposited by codoping nitrogen and carbon on indium tin oxide-coated substrates as visible light (Vis)-enabled catalysts. The X-ray diffraction peak intensity of the preferential orientation in (2 1 1) plane declines when the topmost 1.0 μm layer of the film is ground off. The decrease in the crystallite size and the crystallinity of anatase TiO 2 film is also evidenced by a shift towards the high wave number and broadening of the Raman spectra. Low doping concentrations of N (1.3%) and C (1.8%) are estimated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) which displays an N 1 s peak at 396.8 eV and a C 1 s peak at 282.1 eV, respectively. This is attributed to the substitution of the oxygen sites with nitrogen and carbon, which is believed to be responsible for the Vis photocatalytic activity into a wavelength of >500 nm. The cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy images show larger pores at the grain boundaries and in larger columnar crystals than in the undoped TiO 2 film. All of these results indicate that porosity, crystallinity and shift in the preferential orientation are more pronounced close to the surface than close to the bottom of the sample. Wettability upon measurement of the water contact angle, methylene blue degradation and radical formation tests under both ultraviolet and Vis irradiation demonstrate that the topmost surface renders not only a larger reactive surface area but also a better carrier transport route than the rest of the film, improving its photocatalytic activity. These results show that surface porosity of the film is dominant than the tailoring of the photocatalytic activities of N,C-codoped TiO 2 catalysts.

  11. Al decorated ZnO thin-film photoanode for SPR-enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Hongxia; Li, Xin; Dong, Wei; Xi, Junhua; Wu, Xin

    2018-06-01

    Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has been considered to be a promising approach to ease the energy and environmental crisis. Herein, Al decorated ZnO thin films are successfully achieved through a facile dc magnetron-sputtering method followed with Al evaporation for further enhanced PEC performance. The Al/ZnO thin film with 60 s Al evaporating time exhibits the highest photocurrent density under AM1.5G and visible light irradiation, which are more than 5 and 3 times as the pure ZnO film, respectively. Such surface modification by Al not only enlarges the visible light absorption based on surface plasmonic resonance effect, but facilitates the charge separation and transportation at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Finally, a possible mechanism is proposed for the photocatalytic activity enhancement of Al/ZnO thin film photoanode.

  12. Activation like behaviour on the temperature dependence of the carrier density in In2O3-ZnO films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    K, Makise; B, Shinozaki; T, Asano; K, Yano; H, Nakamura

    2012-12-01

    We study the effect of annealing in high vacuum on the transport properties for In2O3-ZnO films. We prepared indium zinc oxide films by the DC-magnetron sputtering method using an In2O3-ZnO target (89.3 wt % In2O3 and 10.7 wt % ZnO). The annealing temperature is from 373 to 773K. From the XRD analysis, we find that all as deposited films are amorphous. In addition we find that amorphous films are crystallized by annealing at a temperature above 773 K over 2 hours. The temperature dependence of resistivity ρ of all amorphous films shows metallic behaviour. On the other hand, ρ(T) of poly In2O3-ZnO films shows semi-conducting behaviour. We carry out a detailed analysis of the temperature dependence of Hall mobility. The activation energy Ed has been obtained from the slope of the carrier concentration Ne vs. the inverse temperature plot at high temperatures. We found that the Ed takes values between 0.43 and 0.19 meV. Meanwhile, temperature dependence of Ne for poly-In2O3-ZnO films did not show activation-like behaviour. This behaviour is thought to be causally related to impurity conduction band.

  13. Composite structure of ZnO films coated with reduced graphene oxide: structural, electrical and electrochemical properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shuai, Weiqiang; Hu, Yuehui; Chen, Yichuan; Hu, Keyan; Zhang, Xiaohua; Zhu, Wenjun; Tong, Fan; Lao, Zixuan

    2018-02-01

    ZnO films coated with reduced graphene oxide (RGO-ZnO) were prepared by a simple chemical approach. The graphene oxide (GO) films transferred onto ZnO films by spin coating were reduced to RGO films by two steps (exposed to hydrazine vapor for 12 h and annealed at 600 °C). The crystal structures, electrical and photoluminescence properties of RGO-ZnO films on quartz substrates were systematically studied. The SEM images illustrated that RGO layers have successfully been coated on the ZnO films very tightly. The PL properties of RGO-ZnO were studied. PL spectra show two sharp peaks at 390 nm and a broad visible emission around 490 nm. The resistivity of RGO-ZnO films was measured by a Hall measurement system, RGO as nanofiller considerably decrease the resistivity of ZnO films. An electrode was fabricated, using RGO-ZnO films deposited on Si substrate as active materials, for super capacitor application. By comparison of different results, we conclude that the RGO-ZnO composite material couples possess the properties of super capacitor. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61464005, 51562015), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Nos. 20143ACB21004, 20151BAB212008, 20171BAB216015), the Jiangxi Province Foreign Cooperation Projects, China (No. 20151BDH80031), the Leader Training Object Project of Major Disciplines Academic and Technical of Jiangxi Province (No. 20123BCB22002), and the Key Technology R & D Program of the Jiangxi Provine of Science and Technology (No. 20171BBE50053).

  14. Effect of Li doping on the electric and pyroelectric properties of ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Trinca, L. M.; Galca, A. C.; Boni, A. G.; Botea, M.; Pintilie, L.

    2018-01-01

    Un-doped ZnO (UDZO) and Li-doped ZnO (LZO) polycrystalline thin films were grown on platinized silicon by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The electrical properties were investigated on as-grown and annealed UDZO and LZO films with capacitor configuration, using top and bottom platinum electrodes. In the case of the as-grown films it was found that the introduction of Li increases the resistivity of ZnO and induces butterfly shape in the C-V characteristic, suggesting ferroelectric-like behavior in LZO films. The properties of LZO samples does not significantly changes after thermal annealing while the properties of UDZO samples show significant changes upon annealing, manifested in a butterfly shape of the C-V characteristic and resistive-like switching. However, the butterfly shape disappears if long delay time is used in the C-V measurement, the characteristic remaining non-linear. Pyroelectric signal could be measured only on annealed films. Comparing the UDZO results with those obtained in the case of Li:ZnO, it was found that the pyroelectric properties are considerably enhanced by Li doping, leading to pyroelectric signal with about one order of magnitude larger at low modulation frequencies than for un-doped samples. Although the results of this study hint towards a ferroelectric-like behavior of Li doped ZnO, the presence of real ferroelectricity in this material remains controversial.

  15. Achieving highly-enhanced UV photoluminescence and its origin in ZnO nanocrystalline films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Thapa, Dinesh; Huso, Jesse; Morrison, John L.

    ZnO is an efficient luminescent material in the UV-range ~3.4 eV with a wide range of applications in optical technologies. Sputtering is a cost-effective and relatively straightforward growth technique for ZnO films; however, most as-grown films are observed to contain intrinsic defects which can significantly diminish the desirable UV-emission. In this research the defect dynamics and optical properties of ZnO sputtered films were studied via post-growth annealing in Ar or O 2 ambient, with X-ray diffraction (XRD), imaging, transmission and Urbach analysis, Raman scattering, and photoluminescence (PL). The imaging, XRD, Raman and Urbach analyses indicate significant improvement in crystal morphologymore » and band-edge characteristics upon annealing, which is nearly independent of the annealing environment. The native defects specific to the as-grown films, which were analyzed via PL, are assigned to Zn i related centers that luminesce at 2.8 eV. Their presence is attributed to the nature of the sputtering growth technique, which supports Zn-rich growth conditions. After annealing, in either environment the 2.8 eV center diminished accompanied by morphology improvement, and the desirable UV-PL significantly increased. The O 2 ambient was found to introduce nominal O i centers while the Ar ambient was found to be the ideal environment for the enhancement of the UV-light emission: an enhancement of ~40 times was achieved. The increase in the UV-PL is attributed to the reduction of Zn i-related defects, the presence of which in ZnO provides a competing route to the UV emission. Also, the effect of the annealing was to decrease the compressive stress in the films. Lastly, the dominant UV-PL at the cold temperature regime is attributed to luminescent centers not associated with the usual excitons of ZnO, but rather to structural defects.« less

  16. Achieving highly-enhanced UV photoluminescence and its origin in ZnO nanocrystalline films

    DOE PAGES

    Thapa, Dinesh; Huso, Jesse; Morrison, John L.; ...

    2016-06-14

    ZnO is an efficient luminescent material in the UV-range ~3.4 eV with a wide range of applications in optical technologies. Sputtering is a cost-effective and relatively straightforward growth technique for ZnO films; however, most as-grown films are observed to contain intrinsic defects which can significantly diminish the desirable UV-emission. In this research the defect dynamics and optical properties of ZnO sputtered films were studied via post-growth annealing in Ar or O 2 ambient, with X-ray diffraction (XRD), imaging, transmission and Urbach analysis, Raman scattering, and photoluminescence (PL). The imaging, XRD, Raman and Urbach analyses indicate significant improvement in crystal morphologymore » and band-edge characteristics upon annealing, which is nearly independent of the annealing environment. The native defects specific to the as-grown films, which were analyzed via PL, are assigned to Zn i related centers that luminesce at 2.8 eV. Their presence is attributed to the nature of the sputtering growth technique, which supports Zn-rich growth conditions. After annealing, in either environment the 2.8 eV center diminished accompanied by morphology improvement, and the desirable UV-PL significantly increased. The O 2 ambient was found to introduce nominal O i centers while the Ar ambient was found to be the ideal environment for the enhancement of the UV-light emission: an enhancement of ~40 times was achieved. The increase in the UV-PL is attributed to the reduction of Zn i-related defects, the presence of which in ZnO provides a competing route to the UV emission. Also, the effect of the annealing was to decrease the compressive stress in the films. Lastly, the dominant UV-PL at the cold temperature regime is attributed to luminescent centers not associated with the usual excitons of ZnO, but rather to structural defects.« less

  17. Physical deoxygenation of graphene oxide paper surface and facile in situ synthesis of graphene based ZnO films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ding, Jijun; Wang, Minqiang, E-mail: mqwang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn; Zhang, Xiangyu

    2014-12-08

    In-situ sputtering ZnO films on graphene oxide (GO) paper are used to fabricate graphene based ZnO films. Crystal structure and surface chemical states are investigated. Results indicated that GO paper can be effectively deoxygenated by in-situ sputtering ZnO on them without adding any reducing agent. Based on the principle of radio frequency magnetron sputtering, we propose that during magnetron sputtering process, plasma streams contain large numbers of electrons. These electrons not only collide with argon atoms to produce secondary electrons but also they are accelerated to bombard the substrates (GO paper) resulting in effective deoxygenation of oxygen-containing functional groups. In-situmore » sputtering ZnO films on GO paper provide an approach to design graphene-semiconductor nanocomposites.« less

  18. Fabrication and improved photoelectrochemical properties of a transferred GaN-based thin film with InGaN/GaN layers.

    PubMed

    Cao, Dezhong; Xiao, Hongdi; Gao, Qingxue; Yang, Xiaokun; Luan, Caina; Mao, Hongzhi; Liu, Jianqiang; Liu, Xiangdong

    2017-08-17

    Herein, a lift-off mesoporous GaN-based thin film, which consisted of a strong phase-separated InGaN/GaN layer and an n-GaN layer, was fabricated via an electrochemical etching method in a hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution for the first time and then transferred onto quartz or n-Si substrates, acting as photoanodes during photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting in a 1 M NaCl aqueous solution. Compared to the as-grown GaN-based film, the transferred GaN-based thin films possess higher and blue-shifted light emission, presumably resulting from an increase in the surface area and stress relaxation in the InGaN/GaN layer embedded on the mesoporous n-GaN. The properties such as (i) high photoconversion efficiency, (ii) low turn-on voltage (-0.79 V versus Ag/AgCl), and (iii) outstanding stability enable the transferred films to have excellent PEC water splitting ability. Furthermore, as compared to the film transferred onto the quartz substrate, the film transferred onto the n-Si substrate exhibits higher photoconversion efficiency (2.99% at -0.10 V) due to holes (h + ) in the mesoporous n-GaN layer that originate from the n-Si substrate.

  19. ZnO nanorod arrays and direct wire bonding on GaN surfaces for rapid fabrication of antireflective, high-temperature ultraviolet sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    So, Hongyun; Senesky, Debbie G.

    2016-11-01

    Rapid, cost-effective, and simple fabrication/packaging of microscale gallium nitride (GaN) ultraviolet (UV) sensors are demonstrated using zinc oxide nanorod arrays (ZnO NRAs) as an antireflective layer and direct bonding of aluminum wires to the GaN surface. The presence of the ZnO NRAs on the GaN surface significantly reduced the reflectance to less than 1% in the UV and 4% in the visible light region. As a result, the devices fabricated with ZnO NRAs and mechanically stable aluminum bonding wires (pull strength of 3-5 gf) showed higher sensitivity (136.3% at room temperature and 148.2% increase at 250 °C) when compared with devices with bare (uncoated) GaN surfaces. In addition, the devices demonstrated reliable operation at high temperatures up to 300 °C, supporting the feasibility of simple and cost-effective UV sensors operating with higher sensitivity in high-temperature conditions, such as in combustion, downhole, and space exploration applications.

  20. Stable and High-Performance Flexible ZnO Thin-Film Transistors by Atomic Layer Deposition.

    PubMed

    Lin, Yuan-Yu; Hsu, Che-Chen; Tseng, Ming-Hung; Shyue, Jing-Jong; Tsai, Feng-Yu

    2015-10-14

    Passivation is a challenging issue for the oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) technologies because it requires prolonged high-temperature annealing treatments to remedy defects produced in the process, which greatly limits its manufacturability as well as its compatibility with temperature-sensitive materials such as flexible plastic substrates. This study investigates the defect-formation mechanisms incurred by atomic layer deposition (ALD) passivation processes on ZnO TFTs, based on which we demonstrate for the first time degradation-free passivation of ZnO TFTs by a TiO2/Al2O3 nanolaminated (TAO) film deposited by a low-temperature (110 °C) ALD process. By combining the TAO passivation film with ALD dielectric and channel layers into an integrated low-temperature ALD process, we successfully fabricate flexible ZnO TFTs on plastics. Thanks to the exceptional gas-barrier property of the TAO film (water vapor transmission rate (WVTR)<10(-6) g m(-2) day(-1)) as well as the defect-free nature of the ALD dielectric and ZnO channel layers, the TFTs exhibit excellent device performance with high stability and flexibility: field-effect mobility>20 cm2 V(-1) s(-1), subthreshold swing<0.4 V decade(-1) after extended bias-stressing (>10,000 s), air-storage (>1200 h), and bending (1.3 cm radius for 1000 times).

  1. Reverse-bias-driven dichromatic electroluminescence of n-ZnO wire arrays/p-GaN film heterojunction light-emitting diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jeong, Junseok; Choi, Ji Eun; Kim, Yong-Jin; Hwang, Sunyong; Kim, Sung Kyu; Kim, Jong Kyu; Jeong, Hu Young; Hong, Young Joon

    2016-09-01

    Position-controlled n-ZnO microwire (MW) and nanowire-bundle (NW-B) arrays were fabricated using hydrothermal growth of ZnO on a patterned p-GaN film. Both the wire/film p-n heterojunctions showed electrical rectification features at reverse-bias (rb) voltages, analogous to backward diodes. Dichromatic electroluminescence (EL) emissions with 445- and 560-nm-wavelength peaks displayed whitish-blue and greenish-yellow light from MW- and NW-B-based heterojunctions at rb voltages, respectively. The different dichromatic EL emission colors were studied based on photoluminescence spectra and the dichromatic EL peak intensity ratios as a function of the rb voltage. The different EL colors are discussed with respect to depletion thickness and electron tunneling probability determined by wire/film junction geometry and size.

  2. Study of cobalt effect on structural and optical properties of Dy doped ZnO nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, Pawan; Pandey, Praveen C.

    2018-05-01

    The present study has been carried out to investigate the effect of Co doping on structural and optical properties of Dy doped ZnO nanoparticles. We have prepared pure Zinc oxide, Dy (1%) doped ZnO and Dy (1%) doped ZnO co-doped with Co(2%) with the help of simple sol-gel combustion method. The structural analysis carried out using X-ray diffraction spectra (XRD) indicates substitution of Dy and Co at Zn site of ZnO crystal structure and hexagonal crystal structure without any secondary phase formation in all the samples. The surface morphology was analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Absorption study indicates that Dy doping causes a small shift in band edge, while Co co-doping results significant change is absorption edge as well as introduce defect level absorption in the visible region. The band gap of samples decreases due to Dy and Co doping, which can be attributed to defect level formation below the conduction band in the system.

  3. Exploration of Al-Doped ZnO in Photovoltaic Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ciccarino, Christopher; Sahiner, M. Alper

    The electrical properties of Al doped ZnO-based thin films represent a potential advancement in the push for increasing solar cell efficiency. Doping with Aluminum will theoretically decrease resistivity of the film and therefore achieve this potential as a viable option in the P-N junction phase of photovoltaic cells. The n-type semi-conductive characteristics of the ZnO layer will theoretically be optimized with the addition of Aluminum carriers. In this study, Aluminum doping concentrations ranging from 1-3% by mass were produced, analyzed, and compared. Films were developed onto ITO coated glass using the Pulsed Laser Deposition technique. Target thickness was 250 nm and ellipsometry measurements showed uniformity and accuracy in this regard. Active dopant concentrations were determined using Hall Effect measurements. Efficiency measurements showed possible applications of this doped compound, with upwards of 7% efficiency measured, using a Keithley 2602 SourceMeter set-up. XRD scans showed highly crystalline structures, with effective Al intertwining of the hexagonal wurtzile ZnO molecular structure. This alone indicates a promising future of collaboration between these two materials.

  4. Limits of ZnO Electrodeposition in Mesoporous Tin Doped Indium Oxide Films in View of Application in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

    PubMed Central

    Dunkel, Christian; von Graberg, Till; Smarsly, Bernd M.; Oekermann, Torsten; Wark, Michael

    2014-01-01

    Well-ordered 3D mesoporous indium tin oxide (ITO) films obtained by a templated sol-gel route are discussed as conductive porous current collectors. This paper explores the use of such films modified by electrochemical deposition of zinc oxide (ZnO) on the pore walls to improve the electron transport in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Mesoporous ITO film were dip-coated with pore sizes of 20–25 nm and 40–45 nm employing novel poly(isobutylene)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymers as structure-directors. After electrochemical deposition of ZnO and sensitization with the indoline dye D149 the films were tested as photoanodes in DSSCs. Short ZnO deposition times led to strong back reaction of photogenerated electrons from non-covered ITO to the electrolyte. ITO films with larger pores enabled longer ZnO deposition times before pore blocking occurred, resulting in higher efficiencies, which could be further increased by using thicker ITO films consisting of five layers, but were still lower compared to nanoporous ZnO films electrodeposited on flat ITO. The major factors that currently limit the application are the still low thickness of the mesoporous ITO films, too small pore sizes and non-ideal geometries that do not allow obtaining full coverage of the ITO surface with ZnO before pore blocking occurs. PMID:28788618

  5. Energy transfer upconversion in Er3+-Tm3+ codoped sodium silicate glass

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, Vinod; Pandey, Anurag; Ntwaeaborwa, O. M.; Swart, H. C.

    2018-04-01

    Er3+/Tm3+ doped and codoped Na2O-SiO2-ZnO (NSZO) glasses were prepared by the conventional melt-quenching method. The amorphous nature of the prepared glasses was confirmed by the X-ray diffraction analysis. The optical absorption spectrum displayed several peaks, which correspond to Er3+ and Tm3+ dopant ions embedded into the NSZO glass. Both dopants experienced upconversion emission under 980 nm excitation. Efficient energy transfer from Er3+ to Tm3+ was observed in the co-doped samples to enhance the near infrared emission of the Tm3+ ions.

  6. Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of Cd Doped ZnO Thin Films by Reactive dc Magnetron Sputtering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, A. Guru Sampath; Obulapathi, L.; Sarmash, T. Sofi; Rani, D. Jhansi; Maddaiah, M.; Rao, T. Subba; Asokan, K.

    2015-04-01

    Thin films of cadmium (Cd) (0 wt.%, 2 wt.%, 4 wt.% and 10 wt.%) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) have been deposited on a glass substrate by reactive DC magnetron sputtering. The synthesized films are characterized by glancing angle x-ray diffraction (GAXRD), UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy, four probe resistivity measurement, Hall measurement system, field emission-scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive analysis by x-rays. A systematic study has been made on the structure, electrical and optical properties of Cd doped ZnO thin films as a function of Cd concentration (0 wt.%, 2 wt.%, 4 wt.% and 10 wt.%). All these films have a hexagonal wurtzite ZnO structure with (0 0 2) orientation without any Cd related phase from the GAXRD patterns. The grain size was increased and maximum appears at 4 wt.% Cd concentration. The electrical resistivity of the films decreased with the Cd doping and minimum resistivity was observed at 4 wt.% Cd concentration. UV-Vis-NIR studies showed that the optical band gap of ZnO (3.37 eV) was reduced to 3.10 eV which is at 4 wt.% Cd concentration.

  7. A study of H and D doped ZnO epitaxial films grown by pulsed laser deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Y. J.; Kaspar, T. C.; Droubay, T. C.; Joly, A. G.; Nachimuthu, P.; Zhu, Z.; Shutthanandan, V.; Chambers, S. A.

    2008-09-01

    We examine the crystal structure and electrical and optical properties of ZnO epitaxial films grown by pulsed laser deposition in a H2 or D2 ambient. n-type electrical conductivity is enhanced by three orders of magnitude as a result of growing in H2 (D2) compared to ZnO films grown in O2. Hall effect measurements reveal very small carrier activation energies and carrier concentrations in the mid-1018 cm-3 range. Optical absorption measurements show that the enhanced conductivity is not a result of ZnO reduction and interstitial Zn formation. Photoluminescence spectra suggest excitonic emission associated with exciton-hydrogen donor complex formation and show no evidence for midgap emission resulting from defects. We have modeled the transport properties of H (D) doped ZnO films using variable range hopping and surface layer conductivity models, but our data do not fit well with these models. Rather, it appears that growth in H2 (D2) promotes the formation of an exceedingly shallow donor state not seen in ZnO crystals annealed in H2 after growth. This new state may be associated with H (D) substitution at O sites in the lattice.

  8. Enhanced optical band-gap of ZnO thin films by sol-gel technique

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Raghu, P., E-mail: dpr3270@gmail.com; Naveen, C. S.; Shailaja, J.

    2016-05-06

    Transparent ZnO thin films were prepared using different molar concentration (0.1 M, 0.2 M & 0.8 M) of zinc acetate on soda lime glass substrates by the sol-gel spin coating technique. The optical properties revealed that the transmittance found to decrease with increase in molar concentration. Absorption edge showed that the higher concentration film has increasingly red shifted. An increased band gap energy of the thin films was found to be direct allowed transition of ∼3.9 eV exhibiting their relevance for photovoltaic applications. The extinction coefficient analysis revealed maximum transmittance with negligible absorption coefficient in the respective wavelengths. The resultsmore » of ZnO thin film prepared by sol-gel technique reveal its suitability for optoelectronics and as a window layer in solar cell applications.« less

  9. Effect of Material of Metal Sublayer and Deposition Configuration on the Texture Formation in the Piezoactive ZnO Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Veselov, A. G.; Elmanov, V. I.; Kiryasova, O. A.; Nikulin, Yu. V.

    2018-01-01

    Effect of material of metal sublayer (aluminum, vanadium, chromium, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper) and deposition configuration on the formation of the oblique and straight texture in the ZnO films is studied. The films that are synthesized in a dc magnetron sputtering system. It is shown that the piezoactive ZnO films with oblique texture that can generate shear waves are formed on the Cr and V metal sublayers in the shifted deposition configuration when the substrate is shifted relative to the magnetron axis toward the region of the target erosion. The piezoactive ZnO films with the straight structure that can generate longitudinal waves are formed on a chemically pure Al sublayer in the symmetric deposition configuration when the substrate is centered with respect to the target. Changes of the sublayer material in both deposition configurations or preliminary oxidation of the sublayer lead to the formation of the piezoactive ZnO films with mixed texture that excite shear and longitudinal waves. Chemical etching is used to show that the ZnO films with the oblique and straight textures exhibit piezoactive properties and can generate hypersound at thicknesses of no less than about 0.3 and about 0.9 μm, respectively.

  10. Boron, bismuth co-doping of gallium arsenide and other compounds for photonic and heterojunction bipolar transistor devices

    DOEpatents

    Mascarenhas, Angelo

    2015-07-07

    Isoelectronic co-doping of semiconductor compounds and alloys with acceptors and deep donors is sued to decrease bandgap, to increase concentration of the dopant constituents in the resulting alloys, and to increase carrier mobilities lifetimes. For example, Group III-V compounds and alloys, such as GaAs and GaP, are isoelectronically co-doped with, for example, B and Bi, to customize solar cells, and other semiconductor devices. Isoelectronically co-doped Group II-VI compounds and alloys are also included.

  11. Studies on visible light photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of nanostructured cobalt doped ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel spin coating method.

    PubMed

    Poongodi, G; Anandan, P; Kumar, R Mohan; Jayavel, R

    2015-09-05

    Nanostructured cobalt doped ZnO thin films were deposited on glass substrate by sol-gel spin coating technique and characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The XRD results showed that the thin films were well crystalline with hexagonal wurtzite structure. The results of EDAX and XPS revealed that Co was doped into ZnO structure. FESEM images revealed that the films possess granular morphology without any crack and confirm that Co doping decreases the grain size. UV-Vis transmission spectra show that the substitution of Co in ZnO leads to band gap narrowing. The Co doped ZnO films were found to exhibit improved photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue dye under visible light in comparison with the undoped ZnO film. The decrease in grain size and extending light absorption towards the visible region by Co doping in ZnO film contribute equally to the improved photocatalytic activity. The bactericidal efficiency of Co doped ZnO films were investigated against a Gram negative (Escherichia coli) and a Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria. The optical density (OD) measurement showed better bactericidal activity at higher level of Co doping in ZnO. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Effect of Ag doping on the properties of ZnO thin films for UV stimulated emission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Razeen, Ahmed S.; Gadallah, A.-S.; El-Nahass, M. M.

    2018-06-01

    Ag doped ZnO thin films have been prepared using sol-gel spin coating method, with different doping concentrations. Structural and morphological properties of the films have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Thin films have been optically pumped and stimulated emission has been observed with strong peaks in the UV region. The UV stimulated emission is found to be due to exciton-exciton scattering, and Ag doping promoted this process by increasing the excitons concentrations in the ZnO lattice. Output-input intensity relation and peak emission, FWHM, and quantum efficiency relations with pump intensity have been reported. The threshold for which stimulated emission started has been evaluated to be about 18 MW/cm2 with quantum efficiency of about 58.7%. Mechanisms explaining the role of Ag in enhancement of stimulated emission from ZnO thin films have been proposed.

  13. Effect of stress, strain and optical properties in vacuum and normal annealed ZnO thin films using RF magnetron sputtering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, B. Santhosh; Purvaja, K.; Harinee, N.; Venkateswaran, C.

    2018-05-01

    Zinc oxide thin films have been deposited on quartz substrate using RF magnetron sputtering. The deposited films were subjected to different annealing atmosphere at a fixed temperature of 500 °C for 5h. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns reveals the shift in the peak of both normal annealed and vacuum annealed thin films when compared to as-deposited ZnO film. The crystallite size, intrinsic stress and other parameters were calculated from XRD data. The surface morphology of the obtained films were studied using Atomic force microscopy (AFM). From Uv-Visible spectroscopy, the peak at 374 nm of all the films is characteristics of ZnO. The structural, thermal stability and optical properties of the annealed ZnO films are discussed in detail.

  14. Effect of growth parameters on crystallinity and properties of ZnO films grown by plasma assisted MOCVD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Losurdo, M.; Giangregorio, M. M.; Sacchetti, A.; Capezzuto, P.; Bruno, G.; Malandrino, G.; Fragalà, I. L.

    2007-07-01

    Thin films of ZnO have been grown by plasma assisted metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (PA-MOCVD) using a 13.56 MHz O 2 plasma and the Zn(TTA)•tmed (HTTA=2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone, TMED=N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylendiamine) precursor. The effects of growth parameters such as the plasma activation, the substrate, the surface temperature, and the ratio of fluxes of precursors on the structure, morphology, and optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films have been studied. Under a very low plasma power of 20 W, c-axis oriented hexagonal ZnO thin films are grown on hexagonal sapphire (0001), cubic Si(001) and amorphous quartz substrates. The substrate temperature mainly controls grain size.

  15. ZnO thin film piezoelectric MEMS vibration energy harvesters with two piezoelectric elements for higher output performance.

    PubMed

    Wang, Peihong; Du, Hejun

    2015-07-01

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based vibration energy harvesters with two different designs are presented. These harvesters consist of a silicon cantilever, a silicon proof mass, and a ZnO piezoelectric layer. Design I has a large ZnO piezoelectric element and Design II has two smaller and equally sized ZnO piezoelectric elements; however, the total area of ZnO thin film in two designs is equal. The ZnO thin film is deposited by means of radio-frequency magnetron sputtering method and is characterized by means of XRD and SEM techniques. These ZnO energy harvesters are fabricated by using MEMS micromachining. The natural frequencies of the fabricated ZnO energy harvesters are simulated and tested. The test results show that these two energy harvesters with different designs have almost the same natural frequency. Then, the output performance of different ZnO energy harvesters is tested in detail. The effects of series connection and parallel connection of two ZnO elements on the load voltage and power are also analyzed. The experimental results show that the energy harvester with two ZnO piezoelectric elements in parallel connection in Design II has higher load voltage and higher load power than the fabricated energy harvesters with other designs. Its load voltage is 2.06 V under load resistance of 1 MΩ and its maximal load power is 1.25 μW under load resistance of 0.6 MΩ, when it is excited by an external vibration with frequency of 1300.1 Hz and acceleration of 10 m/s(2). By contrast, the load voltage of the energy harvester of Design I is 1.77 V under 1 MΩ resistance and its maximal load power is 0.98 μW under 0.38 MΩ load resistance when it is excited by the same vibration.

  16. Thermoelectric Properties of Al-Doped ZnO Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saini, S.; Mele, P.; Honda, H.; Matsumoto, K.; Miyazaki, K.; Ichinose, A.

    2014-06-01

    We have prepared 2 % Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films on SrTiO3 substrates by a pulsed laser deposition technique at various deposition temperatures ( T dep = 300-600 °C). The thermoelectric properties of AZO thin films were studied in a low temperature range (300-600 K). Thin film deposited at 300 °C is fully c-axis-oriented and presents electrical conductivity 310 S/cm with Seebeck coefficient -65 μV/K and power factor 0.13 × 10-3 Wm-1 K-2 at 300 K. The performance of thin films increases with temperature. For instance, the power factor is enhanced up to 0.55 × 10-3 Wm-1 K-2 at 600 K, surpassing the best AZO film previously reported in the literature.

  17. Controllable Growth of Ga Film Electrodeposited from Aqueous Solution and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells.

    PubMed

    Bi, Jinlian; Ao, Jianping; Gao, Qing; Zhang, Zhaojing; Sun, Guozhong; He, Qing; Zhou, Zhiqiang; Sun, Yun; Zhang, Yi

    2017-06-07

    Electrodepositon of Ga film is very challenging due to the high standard reduction potential (-0.53 V vs SHE for Ga 3+ ). In this study, Ga film with compact structure was successfully deposited on the Mo/Cu/In substrate by the pulse current electrodeposition (PCE) method using GaCl 3 aqueous solution. A high deposition rate of Ga 3+ and H + can be achieved by applying a large overpotential induced by high pulse current. In the meanwhile, the concentration polarization induced by cation depletion can be minimized by changing the pulse frequency and duty cycle. Uniform and smooth Ga film was fabricated at high deposition rate with pulse current density 125 mA/cm 2 , pulse frequency 5 Hz, and duty cycle 0.25. Ga film was then selenized together with electrodeposited Cu and In films to make a CIGSe absorber film for solar cells. The solar cell based on the Ga film presents conversion efficiency of 11.04%, fill factor of 63.40%, and V oc of 505 mV, which is much better than those based on the inhomogeneous and rough Ga film prepared by the DCE method, indicating the pulse current electrodeposition process is promising for the fabrication of CIGSe solar cell.

  18. Growth of pure ZnO thin films prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis on silicon

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ayouchi, R.; Martin, F.; Leinen, D.; Ramos-Barrado, J. R.

    2003-01-01

    Structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis from zinc acetate (Zn(CH 3COO) 2 2H 2O) aqueous solutions, on polished Si(1 0 0), and fused silica substrates for optical characterization, have been studied in terms of deposition time and substrate temperature. The growth of the films present three regimes depending on the substrate temperature, with increasing, constant and decreasing growth rates at lower, middle, and higher-temperature ranges, respectively. Growth rate higher than 15 nm min -1 can be achieved at Ts=543 K. ZnO film morphological and electrical properties have been related to these growth regimes. The films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

  19. Realizing luminescent downshifting in ZnO thin films by Ce doping with enhancement of photocatalytic activity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Narayanan, Nripasree; Deepak, N. K.

    2018-04-01

    ZnO thin films doped with Ce at different concentration were deposited on glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique. XRD analysis revealed the phase purity and polycrystalline nature of the films with hexagonal wurtzite geometry and the composition analysis confirmed the incorporation of Ce in the ZnO lattice in the case of doped films. Crystalline quality and optical transmittance diminished while electrical conductivity enhanced with Ce doping. Ce doping resulted in a red-shift of optical energy gap due to the downshift of the conduction band minimum after merging with Ce related impurity bands formed below the conduction band in the forbidden gap. In the room temperature photoluminescence spectra, UV emission intensity of the doped films decreased while the intensity of the visible emission band increased drastically implying the degradation in crystallinity as well as the incorporation of defect levels capable of luminescence downshifting. Ce doping showed improvement in photocatalytic efficiency by effectively trapping the free carriers and then transferring for dye degradation. Thus Ce doped ZnO thin films are capable of acting as luminescent downshifters as well as efficient photocatalysts.

  20. Structural, Morphological, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of Y, N-Doped and Codoped TiO₂ Thin Films.

    PubMed

    Hamden, Zeineb; Conceição, David; Boufi, Sami; Vieira Ferreira, Luís Filipe; Bouattour, Soraa

    2017-05-31

    Pure TiO₂, Y-N single-doped and codoped TiO₂ powders and thin films deposited on glass beads were successfully prepared using dip-coating and sol-gel methods. The samples were analyzed using grazing angle X-ray diffraction (GXRD), Raman spectroscopy, time resolved luminescence, ground state diffuse reflectance absorption and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). According to the GXRD patterns and micro-Raman spectra, only the anatase form of TiO₂ was made evident. Ground state diffuse reflectance absorption studies showed that doping with N or codoping with N and Y led to an increase of the band gap. Laser induced luminescence analysis revealed a decrease in the recombination rate of the photogenerated holes and electrons. The photocatalytic activity of supported catalysts, toward the degradation of toluidine, revealed a meaningful enhancement upon codoping samples at a level of 2% (atomic ratio). The photocatalytic activity of the material and its reactivity can be attributed to a reduced, but significant, direct photoexcitation of the semiconductor by the halogen lamp, together with a charge-transfer-complex mechanism, or with the formation of surface oxygen vacancies by the N dopant atoms.

  1. Electron and hole stability in GaN and ZnO.

    PubMed

    Walsh, Aron; Catlow, C Richard A; Miskufova, Martina; Sokol, Alexey A

    2011-08-24

    We assess the thermodynamic doping limits of GaN and ZnO on the basis of point defect calculations performed using the embedded cluster approach and employing a hybrid non-local density functional for the quantum mechanical region. Within this approach we have calculated a staggered (type-II) valence band alignment between the two materials, with the N 2p states contributing to the lower ionization potential of GaN. With respect to the stability of free electron and hole carriers, redox reactions resulting in charge compensation by ionic defects are found to be largely endothermic (unfavourable) for electrons and exothermic (favourable) for holes, which is consistent with the efficacy of electron conduction in these materials. Approaches for overcoming these fundamental thermodynamic limits are discussed. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd

  2. Reversible superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic transition of ZnO nanorod/epoxy composite films.

    PubMed

    Liu, Yan; Lin, Ziyin; Lin, Wei; Moon, Kyoung Sik; Wong, C P

    2012-08-01

    Tuning the surface wettability is of great interest for both scientific research and practical applications. We demonstrated reversible transition between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity on a ZnO nanorod/epoxy composite film. The epoxy resin serves as an adhesion and stress relief layer. The ZnO nanorods were exposed after oxygen reactive ion etching of the epoxy matrix. A subsequent chemcial treatment with fluoroalkyl and alkyl silanes resulted in a superhydrophobic surface with a water contact angle up to 158.4° and a hysteresis as low as 1.3°. Under UV irradiation, the water contact angle decreased gradually, and the surface eventually became superhydrophilic because of UV induced decomposition of alkyl silanes and hydroxyl absorption on ZnO surfaces. A reversible transition of surface wettability was realized by alternation of UV illumination and surface treatment. Such ZnO nanocomposite surface also showed improved mechanical robustness.

  3. Effect of substrate surface treatment on electrochemically assisted photocatalytic activity of N-S co-doped TiO2 films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Parada-Gamboa, N. J.; Pedraza-Avella, J. A.; Meléndez, A. M.

    2017-01-01

    To investigate whether different metal surface treatments, performed on meshes of stainless steel 304 and titanium, affect the photocatalytic activity (PCA) of supported modified anodic TiO2 films, metallic substrates were coated with titanium isopropoxide sol-gel precursor modified with thiourea. Substrates were pretreated by some of the following techniques: a) sandblasting, b) pickling, c) hydroxylation and d) passivation. The as-prepared electrode materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and voltammetry in the dark and under light UVA irradiation. PCA of modified N-S-TiO2 electrodes was evaluated by electrochemically assisted photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange. The results of XPS revealed that N and S were incorporated into the lattice of TiO2. FESEM showed that surface roughness and thickness of films varies depending on surface treatment. Voltammetric and XPS characterization of N-S co-doped TiO2 films supported on stainless steel revealed that their surface contains alpha-Fe2O3/FeOOH. Accordingly, iron contamination of the films coming from stainless steel was detrimental to the degradation of methyl orange. Prior to sol-gel coating process, sandblasting followed by nitric acid passivation for stainless steel or hydrofluoric acid pickling process in the case of titanium improved the PCA of N-S co-doped TiO2 films.

  4. Modification of opto-electronic properties of ZnO by incorporating metallic tin for buffer layer in thin film solar cells

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Deepu, D. R.; Jubimol, J.; Kartha, C. Sudha

    2015-06-24

    In this report, the effect of incorporation of metallic tin (Sn) on opto-electronic properties of ZnO thin films is presented. ZnO thin films were deposited through ‘automated chemical spray pyrolysis’ (CSP) technique; later different quantities of ‘Sn’ were evaporated on it and subsequently annealed. Vacuum annealing showed a positive effect on crystallinity of films. Creation of sub band gap levels due to ‘Sn’ diffusion was evident from the absorption and PL spectra. The tin incorporated films showed good photo response in visible region. Tin incorporated ZnO thin films seem to satisfy the desirable criteria for buffer layer in thin filmmore » solar cells.« less

  5. Effects of substrate conductivity on cell morphogenesis and proliferation using tailored, atomic layer deposition-grown ZnO thin films

    PubMed Central

    Choi, Won Jin; Jung, Jongjin; Lee, Sujin; Chung, Yoon Jang; Yang, Cheol-Soo; Lee, Young Kuk; Lee, You-Seop; Park, Joung Kyu; Ko, Hyuk Wan; Lee, Jeong-O

    2015-01-01

    We demonstrate that ZnO films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be employed as a substrate to explore the effects of electrical conductivity on cell adhesion, proliferation, and morphogenesis. ZnO substrates with precisely tunable electrical conductivity were fabricated on glass substrates using ALD deposition. The electrical conductivity of the film increased linearly with increasing duration of the ZnO deposition cycle (thickness), whereas other physical characteristics, such as surface energy and roughness, tended to saturate at a certain value. Differences in conductivity dramatically affected the behavior of SF295 glioblastoma cells grown on ZnO films, with high conductivity (thick) ZnO films causing growth arrest and producing SF295 cell morphologies distinct from those cultured on insulating substrates. Based on simple electrostatic calculations, we propose that cells grown on highly conductive substrates may strongly adhere to the substrate without focal-adhesion complex formation, owing to the enhanced electrostatic interaction between cells and the substrate. Thus, the inactivation of focal adhesions leads to cell proliferation arrest. Taken together, the work presented here confirms that substrates with high conductivity disturb the cell-substrate interaction, producing cascading effects on cellular morphogenesis and disrupting proliferation, and suggests that ALD-grown ZnO offers a single-variable method for uniquely tailoring conductivity. PMID:25897486

  6. Reverse-bias-driven dichromatic electroluminescence of n-ZnO wire arrays/p-GaN film heterojunction light-emitting diodes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Jeong, Junseok; Choi, Ji Eun; Hong, Young Joon, E-mail: yjhong@sejong.ac.kr

    Position-controlled n-ZnO microwire (MW) and nanowire-bundle (NW-B) arrays were fabricated using hydrothermal growth of ZnO on a patterned p-GaN film. Both the wire/film p–n heterojunctions showed electrical rectification features at reverse-bias (rb) voltages, analogous to backward diodes. Dichromatic electroluminescence (EL) emissions with 445- and 560-nm-wavelength peaks displayed whitish-blue and greenish-yellow light from MW- and NW-B-based heterojunctions at rb voltages, respectively. The different dichromatic EL emission colors were studied based on photoluminescence spectra and the dichromatic EL peak intensity ratios as a function of the rb voltage. The different EL colors are discussed with respect to depletion thickness and electron tunnelingmore » probability determined by wire/film junction geometry and size.« less

  7. Effect of polyvinyl alcohol on electrochemically deposited ZnO thin films for DSSC applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marimuthu, T.; Anandhan, N.

    2017-05-01

    Nanostructures of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film are electrochemically deposited in the absence and presence of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the formation of hexagonal structure of ZnO. The film prepared in the presence of PVA showed a better crystallinity and its crystalline growth along the (002) plane orientation. Field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) images display nanowire arrays (NWAs) and sponge like morphology for films prepared in the absence and presence of PVA, respectively. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra depict the film prepared in the presence PVA having less atomic defects with good crystal quality compared with other film. Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is constructed using low cost eosin yellow dye and current-voltage (J-V) curve is recorded for optimized sponge like morphology based solar cell.

  8. Effect of Mg doping in the gas-sensing performance of RF-sputtered ZnO thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vinoth, E.; Gowrishankar, S.; Gopalakrishnan, N.

    2018-06-01

    Thin films of Mg-free and Mg-doped (3, 10 and 20 mol%) ZnO thin films have been deposited on Si (100) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering for gas-sensing application. Preferential orientation along (002) plane with hexagonal wurtzite structure has been observed in X-ray diffraction analysis. The conductivity, resistivity, and mobility of the deposited films have been measured by Hall effect measurement. The bandgap of the films has been calculated from the UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy. It has been found that the bandgap was increased from 3.35 to 3.91 eV with Mg content in ZnO due to the radiative recombination of excitons. The change in morphology of the grown films has been investigated by scanning electron microscope. Gas-sensing measurements have been conducted for fabricated films. The sensor response, selectivity, and stability measurement were done for the fabricated films. Though better response was found towards ethanol, methanol, and ammonia for MZ2 (Mg at 10 mol%) film and maximum gas response was observed towards ammonia. The selectivity measurement reveals maximum sensitivity about 42% for ammonia. The low response time of 123 s and recovery time of 152 s towards ammonia were observed for MZ2 (Mg at 10 mol%). Stability of the Mg-doped ZnO thin film confirmed by the continuous sensing measurements for 4 months.

  9. Improved ultraviolet emission performance from polarization-engineered n-ZnO/p-GaN heterojunction diode

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiang, Junyan; Zhang, Yuantao; Chi, Chen; Shi, Zhifeng; Yan, Long; Li, Pengchong; Zhang, Baolin; Du, Guotong

    2016-02-01

    O-polar ZnO films were grown on N-polar p-GaN/sapphire substrates by photo-assisted metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and further heterojunction light-emitting diodes based O-polar n-ZnO/N-polar p-GaN were proposed and fabricated. It is experimentally demonstrated that the interface polarization of O-polar n-ZnO/N-polar p-GaN heterojunction can shift the location of the depletion region from the interface deep into the ZnO side. When a forward bias is applied to the proposed diode, a strong and high-purity ultraviolet emission located at 385 nm can be observed. Compared with conventional Zn-polar n-ZnO/Ga-polar p-GaN heterostructure diode, the ultraviolet emission intensity of the proposed heterojunction diode is greatly enhanced due to the presence of polarization-induced inversion layer at the ZnO side of the heterojunction interface. This work provides an innovative path for the design and development of ZnO-based ultraviolet diode.

  10. Effects of Na Doping on Structural, Optical, and Electronic Properties of ZnO Thin Films Fabricated by Sol-Gel Technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fan, Heliang; Yao, Zhen; Xu, Cheng; Wang, Xinqiang; Yu, Zhichao

    2018-04-01

    Undoped and Na-doped ZnO thin films were fabricated by sol-gel technique on quartz glass substrates and annealed at 500°C for 1 h. The structural properties of the films were characterized using x-ray diffraction analysis, which revealed hexagonal wurtzite structure with no peaks corresponding to Na2O or other Na phases being found. Surface morphology observations by scanning electron microscopy revealed that the crystallite size and topographical properties of the ZnO films were influenced by the Na doping concentration. X-ray photoelectron spectra revealed presence of Na+ in ZnO regime. The transmittance spectra indicated that the average transmittance of Na-doped ZnO film was above 80% in the visible range, superior to that of the undoped film. There was a blue-shift in the ultraviolet absorption edge with increase of the Na content. Photoluminescence spectra illustrated two peaks, corresponding to ultraviolet near-band-edge and visible emission.

  11. Computational investigation of structural and electronic properties of aqueous interfaces of GaN, ZnO, and a GaN/ZnO alloy.

    PubMed

    Kharche, Neerav; Hybertsen, Mark S; Muckerman, James T

    2014-06-28

    The GaN/ZnO alloy functions as a visible-light photocatalyst for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. As a first step toward understanding the mechanism and energetics of water-splitting reactions, we investigate the microscopic structure of the aqueous interfaces of the GaN/ZnO alloy and compare them with the aqueous interfaces of pure GaN and ZnO. Specifically, we have studied the (101̄0) surface of GaN and ZnO and the (101̄0) and (12̄10) surfaces of the 1 : 1 GaN/ZnO alloy. The calculations are carried out using first-principles density functional theory based molecular dynamics (DFT-MD). The structure of water within a 3 Å distance from the semiconductor surface is significantly altered by the acid/base chemistry of the aqueous interface. Water adsorption on all surfaces is substantially dissociative such that the surface anions (N or O) act as bases accepting protons from dissociated water molecules while the corresponding hydroxide ions bond with surface cations (Ga or Zn). Additionally, the hard-wall interface presented by the semiconductor imparts ripples in the density of water. Beyond a 3 Å distance from the semiconductor surface, water exhibits a bulk-like hydrogen bond network and oxygen-oxygen radial distribution function. Taken together, these characteristics represent the resting (or "dark") state of the catalytic interface. The electronic structure analysis of the aqueous GaN/ZnO interface suggests that the photogenerated holes may get trapped on interface species other than the adsorbed OH(-) ions. This suggests additional dynamical steps in the water oxidation process.

  12. Crystallographic tilt and in-plane anisotropies of an a-plane InGaN/GaN layered structure grown by MOCVD on r-plane sapphire using a ZnO buffer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, H. F.; Liu, W.; Guo, S.; Chi, D. Z.

    2016-03-01

    High-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) was used to investigate the crystallographic tilts and structural anisotropies in epitaxial nonpolar a-plane InGaN/GaN grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on r-plane sapphire using a ZnO buffer. The substrate had an unintentional miscut of 0.14° towards its [-4 2 2 3] axis. However, HRXRD revealed a tilt of 0.26° (0.20°) between the ZnO (GaN) (11-20) and the Al2O3 (1-102) atomic planes, with the (11-20) axis of ZnO (GaN) tilted towards its c-axis, which has a difference of 163° in azimuth from that of the substrate’s miscut. Excess broadenings in the GaN/ZnO (11-20) rocking curves (RCs) were observed along its c-axis. Specific analyses revealed that partial dislocations and anisotropic in-plane strains, rather than surface-related effects, wafer curvature or stacking faults, are the dominant factors for the structural anisotropy. The orientation of the partial dislocations is most likely affected by the miscut of the substrate, e.g. via tilting of the misfit dislocation gliding planes created during island coalescences. Their Burgers vector components in the growth direction, in turn, gave rise to crystallographic tilts in the same direction as that of the excess RC-broadenings.

  13. Bilayered Oxide thin films for transparent electrode application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dutta, Titas; Narayan, Jagdish

    2008-10-01

    Ga doped ZnO films with electrical and optical properties comparable to indium tin oxide (ITO) is a promising candidate for transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) because of its superior stability in hydrogen environment, benign nature and relatively inexpensive supply. However, ZnO based TCO films suffer from low work function, which is a critical parameter for device applications. We report here the growth of a novel bilayered structure consisting of very thin (few monolayers) ITO, MoOx layer on Zn0.95Ga0.05O film for transparent electrode applications by using pulsed laser deposition technique at different temperatures and oxygen partial pressure. The characteristics of the ITO film and the heterostructure have been investigated in detail using XRD, TEM, XPS, and electrical and optical property measurements. It is envisaged that the overall transmittance and the resistivity are dictated by the thicker layer of ZnGa0.05O beneath the ITO layer. Hence, this study is aimed to improve the surface characteristics without affecting the overall transmittance and sheet resistance. This will enhance the transport of the carriers across the heterojunction in the device, thus, resulting in the increase in device efficiency.

  14. The chemisorption and reactions of formic acid on Cu films on ZnO (000 overline1)-O

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ludviksson, A.; Zhang, R.; Campbell, Charles T.; Griffiths, K.

    1994-06-01

    The adsorption and reactions of formic acid (HCOOD : HCOOH = 3:1) on the oxygen-terminated ZnO(0001¯)-O surface and on thin Cu films deposited on the ZnO(0001¯)-O surface have been studied with temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and XPS. Small amounts of formic acid dissociate at defect sites on clean ZnO(0001¯)-O to yield surface formate (HCOO). The acid D(H) from this dissociation does not reappear in TPD, and is lost to the ZnO bulk, as confirmed by nuclear reaction analysis. The surface HCOO decomposes to yield nearly simultaneous CO 2 (37%), CO (63%) and H 2 TPD peaks at 560 K. Substantial amounts of D (˜ 20%) are incorporated in this hydrogen TPD peak resulting from formate decomposition at ZnO defects, indicating that bulk D is readily accessible. Submonolayer and multilayer Cu films that are deposited at 130 K and partially cover the ZnO surface as 2D and 3D islands adsorb formic acid and decompose it into formate and hydrogen much like the Cu(110) surface. The surface formate from the Cu film decomposes at 470-500 K to give primarily CO 2 and H 2, also much like Cu(110), although atom-thin Cu islands also give ˜ 40% CO. Annealed Cu films give formate decomposition peaks at 25-50 K lower in temperature, attributed to thickening and ordering of the Cu islands to form Cu(111)-like sites. The acid D(H) atom from the formic acid is partially lost by hydrogen spillover from the Cu islands into the ZnO substrate, especially for thin Cu films. This effect partially desorbs and is enhanced upon preannealing the Cu layers, due to increased H diffusion rates across the annealed Cu islands, and/or the decrease in island size. Bulk D(H) is slowly removed as D 2, HD and H 2 above 400 K in diffusion-limited desorption, catalyzed by Cu.

  15. Characterization and device applications of ZnO films deposited by high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Partridge, J. G.; Mayes, E. L. H.; McDougall, N. L.; Bilek, M. M. M.; McCulloch, D. G.

    2013-04-01

    ZnO films have been reactively deposited on sapphire substrates at 300 °C using a high impulse power magnetron sputtering deposition system and characterized structurally, optically and electronically. The unintentionally doped n-type ZnO films exhibit high transparency, moderate carrier concentration (˜5 × 1018 cm-3) and a Hall mobility of 8.0 cm2 V-1 s-1, making them suitable for electronic device applications. Pt/ZnO Schottky diodes formed on the HiPIMS deposited ZnO exhibited rectification ratios up to 104 at ±2 V and sensitivity to UV light.

  16. The Assessment for Sensitivity of a NO2 Gas Sensor with ZnGa2O4/ZnO Core-Shell Nanowires—a Novel Approach

    PubMed Central

    Chen, I-Cherng; Lin, Shiu-Shiung; Lin, Tsao-Jen; Hsu, Cheng-Liang; Hsueh, Ting Jen; Shieh, Tien-Yu

    2010-01-01

    The application of novel core-shell nanowires composed of ZnGa2O4/ZnO to improve the sensitivity of NO2 gas sensors is demonstrated in this study. The growth of ZnGa2O4/ZnO core-shell nanowires is performed by reactive evaporation on patterned ZnO:Ga/SiO2/Si templates at 600 °C. This is to form the homogeneous structure of the sensors investigated in this report to assess their sensitivity in terms of NO2 detection. These novel NO2 gas sensors were evaluated at working temperatures of 25 °C and at 250 °C, respectively. The result reveals the ZnGa2O4/ZnO core-shell nanowires present a good linear relationship (R2 > 0.99) between sensitivity and NO2 concentration at both working temperatures. These core-shell nanowire sensors also possess the highest response (<90 s) and recovery (<120 s) values with greater repeatability seen for NO2 sensors at room temperature, unlike traditional sensors that only work effectively at much higher temperatures. The data in this study indicates the newly-developed ZnGa2O4/ZnO core-shell nanowire based sensors are highly promising for industrial applications. PMID:22319286

  17. Dependence of Ag/Ga composition ratio in AgGaSe2 thin film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Matsuo, H.; Yoshino, K.; Ikari, T.

    2006-09-01

    AgGaSe2 thin film was deposited on glass substrates by vacuum evaporation method. The starting material was mixed Ag2Se and Ga2Se3 powders. Ag/Ga ratios of the samples were 1.5, 1.2, 1.0, 0.8, 0.7 and 0.4. The samples were annealed from 100 to 600 °C for 10 min. After these processes, single phase AgGaSe2 thin films could be obtained except Ag/Ga ratio of 0.4 at annealing temperature of 600 °C. Ag-rich samples had large grain. On the other hand, Ga-rich samples had small grain. Furthermore, Ga-rich and Ag-rich samples indicated p- and n-types because of Ag- and/or Ga-vacancy and Se-vacancy, respectively.

  18. Analysis of stability improvement in ZnO thin film transistor with dual-gate structure under negative bias stress

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yun, Ho-Jin; Kim, Young-Su; Jeong, Kwang-Seok; Kim, Yu-Mi; Yang, Seung-dong; Lee, Hi-Deok; Lee, Ga-Won

    2014-01-01

    In this study, we fabricated dual-gate zinc oxide thin film transistors (ZnO TFTs) without additional processes and analyzed their stability characteristics under a negative gate bias stress (NBS) by comparison with conventional bottom-gate structures. The dual-gate device shows superior electrical parameters, such as subthreshold swing (SS) and on/off current ratio. NBS of VGS = -20 V with VDS = 0 was applied, resulting in a negative threshold voltage (Vth) shift. After applying stress for 1000 s, the Vth shift is 0.60 V in a dual-gate ZnO TFT, while the Vth shift is 2.52 V in a bottom-gate ZnO TFT. The stress immunity of the dual-gate device is caused by the change in field distribution in the ZnO channel by adding another gate as the technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation shows. Additionally, in flicker noise analysis, a lower noise level with a different mechanism is observed in the dual-gate structure. This can be explained by the top side of the ZnO film having a larger crystal and fewer grain boundaries than the bottom side, which is revealed by the enhanced SS and XRD results. Therefore, the improved stability of the dual-gate ZnO TFT is greatly related to the E-field cancellation effect and crystal quality of the ZnO film.

  19. Contrastive Study on the Structure and the Ultraviolet Absorption Property of Multiple-Doped and Element-Doped ZnO Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Yunyun; Zhang, Tao; Lin, Zhenrong; Tian, Yanfeng; Zhou, Shandan

    Sb2O3- and CeO2-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering technique. The influence of Sb2O3 and CeO2 on the structure and ultraviolet (UV) absorption properties was studied by X-ray diffraction and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Results show that multiple doping of films had a prominent effect on the development of crystal grains and the UV absorption property. Ce and Sb exist in many forms in the ZnO film. The multiple-doped films also show enhanced UVA absorption, and the UV absorption peak widens and the absorption intensity increases. Sb plays a dominant role on the structure and UV absorption of ZnO thin films, which are enhanced by Ce.

  20. The electrical, elemental, optical, and surface properties of Si-doped ZnO thin films prepared by thermionic vacuum arc

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mohammadigharehbagh, Reza; Özen, Soner; Yudar, Hafizittin Hakan; Pat, Suat; Korkmaz, Şadan

    2017-09-01

    The purpose of this work is to study the properties of Si-doped ZnO (SZO) thin films, which were prepared using the non-reactive thermionic vacuum arc technique. The analysis of the elemental, optical, and surface properties of ZnO:Si thin films was carried out using energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectrophotometry, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The current-voltage measurement was employed in order to study the electrical properties of the films. The effect of Si doping on the physical properties of ZnO films was investigated. The film thicknesses were measured as 55 and 35 nm for glass and PET substrates, respectively. It was clearly observed from the x-ray diffraction results that the Si and ZnO peaks were present in the coated SZO films for all samples. The morphological studies showed that the deposited surfaces are homogenous, dense, and have a uniform surface, with the existence of some cracks only on the glass substrate. The elemental composition has confirmed the existence of Zn, Si, and O elements within the prepared films. Using a UV-VIS spectrophotometer, the optical parameters such as transmittance, absorbance, refractive index, and reflectance were calculated. It should be noted that the transparency and refractive indices obtained from the measurements decrease with increasing Si concentration. The obtained optical bandgap values using transmittance spectra were determined to be 3.74 and 3.84 eV for the glass and PET substrates, respectively. An increase in the bandgap results demonstrates that the Si doping concentration is comparable to the pure ZnO thin films. The current versus voltage curves revealed the ohmic nature of the films. Subsequently, the development and fabrication of excellent transparent conducting electrodes enabled the appropriate use of Si-doped ZnO thin films.

  1. Role of vacancy defects in Al doped ZnO thin films for optoelectronic devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rotella, H.; Mazel, Y.; Brochen, S.; Valla, A.; Pautrat, A.; Licitra, C.; Rochat, N.; Sabbione, C.; Rodriguez, G.; Nolot, E.

    2017-12-01

    We report on the electrical, optical and photoluminescence properties of industry-ready Al doped ZnO thin films grown by physical vapor deposition, and their evolution after annealing under vacuum. Doping ZnO with Al atoms increases the carrier density but also favors the formation of Zn vacancies, thereby inducing a saturation of the conductivity mechanism at high aluminum content. The electrical and optical properties of these thin layered materials are both improved by annealing process which creates oxygen vacancies that releases charge carriers thus improving the conductivity. This study underlines the effect of the formation of extrinsic and intrinsic defects in Al doped ZnO compound during the fabrication process. The quality and the optoelectronic response of the produced films are increased (up to 1.52 mΩ \\cdotcm and 3.73 eV) and consistent with the industrial device requirements.

  2. Annealing Temperature Dependent Structural and Optical Properties of RF Sputtered ZnO Thin Films.

    PubMed

    Sharma, Shashikant; Varma, Tarun; Asokan, K; Periasamy, C; Boolchandani, Dharmendar

    2017-01-01

    This work investigates the effect of annealing temperature on structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films grown over Si 100 and glass substrates using RF sputtering technique. Annealing temperature has been varied from 300 °C to 600 °C in steps of 100, and different microstructural parameters such as grain size, dislocation density, lattice constant, stress and strain have been evaluated. The structural and surface morphological characterization has been done using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). XRD analysis reveals that the peak intensity of 002 crystallographic orientation increases with increased annealing temperature. Optical characterization of deposited films have been done using UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectrometer. An increase in optical bandgap of deposited ZnO thin films with increasing annealing temperature has been observed. The average optical transmittance was found to be more than 85% for all deposited films. Photoluminiscense spectra (PL) suggest that the crystalline quality of deposited film has increased at higher annealing temperature.

  3. Role of Ce 4 + in the scintillation mechanism of codoped Gd 3 Ga 3 Al 2 O 12 : Ce

    DOE PAGES

    Wu, Yuntao; Meng, Fang; Li, Qi; ...

    2014-10-17

    To control the time-response performance of widely used cerium-activated scintillators in cutting-edge medical-imaging devices, such as time-of-flight positron-emission tomography, a comprehensive understanding of the role of Ce valence states, especially stable Ce 4+, in the scintillation mechanism is essential. However, despite some progress made recently, an understanding of the physical processes involving Ce 4+ is still lacking. The aim of this work is to clarify the role of Ce 4+ in scintillators by studying Ca 2+ codoped Gd 3Ga 3Al 2O1 2∶Ce (GGAG∶Ce). By using a combination of optical absorption spectra and x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopies, the correlation between Ca 2+codopingmore » content and the Ce 4+ fraction is seen. The energy-level diagrams of Ce 3+ and Ce 4+ in the Gd 3Ga 3Al 2O 12 host are established by using theoretical and experimental methods, which indicate a higher position of the 5d 1 state of Ce 4+ in the forbidden gap in comparison to that of Ce 3+. Underlying reasons for the decay-time acceleration resulting from Ca 2+ codoping are revealed, and the physical processes of the Ce 4+-emission model are proposed and further demonstrated by temperature-dependent radioluminescence spectra under x-ray excitation.« less

  4. Pure and Sn-doped ZnO films produced by pulsed laser deposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holmelund, E.; Schou, J.; Tougaard, S.; Larsen, N. B.

    2002-09-01

    A new technique, metronome doping, has been used for doping of films during pulsed laser deposition (PLD). This technique makes it possible to dope continuously during film growth with different concentrations of a dopant in one deposition sequence. Films of pure and doped ZnO have been produced with Sn concentrations up to 16%. The specific resistivity is found to increase and the transmission of visible light to decrease with increasing Sn concentration.

  5. Electron mobility enhancement in ZnO thin films via surface modification by carboxylic acids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spalenka, Josef W.; Gopalan, Padma; Katz, Howard E.; Evans, Paul G.

    2013-01-01

    Modifying the surface of polycrystalline ZnO films using a monolayer of organic molecules with carboxylic acid attachment groups increases the field-effect electron mobility and zero-bias conductivity, resulting in improved transistors and transparent conductors. The improvement is consistent with the passivation of defects via covalent bonding of the carboxylic acid and is reversible by exposure to a UV-ozone lamp. The properties of the solvent used for the attachment are crucial because solvents with high acid dissociation constants (Ka) for carboxylic acids lead to high proton activities and etching of the nanometers-thick ZnO films, masking the electronic effect.

  6. Ion Beam Assisted Deposition of Thin Epitaxial GaN Films.

    PubMed

    Rauschenbach, Bernd; Lotnyk, Andriy; Neumann, Lena; Poppitz, David; Gerlach, Jürgen W

    2017-06-23

    The assistance of thin film deposition with low-energy ion bombardment influences their final properties significantly. Especially, the application of so-called hyperthermal ions (energy <100 eV) is capable to modify the characteristics of the growing film without generating a large number of irradiation induced defects. The nitrogen ion beam assisted molecular beam epitaxy (ion energy <25 eV) is used to deposit GaN thin films on (0001)-oriented 6H-SiC substrates at 700 °C. The films are studied in situ by reflection high energy electron diffraction, ex situ by X-ray diffraction, scanning tunnelling microscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. It is demonstrated that the film growth mode can be controlled by varying the ion to atom ratio, where 2D films are characterized by a smooth topography, a high crystalline quality, low biaxial stress, and low defect density. Typical structural defects in the GaN thin films were identified as basal plane stacking faults, low-angle grain boundaries forming between w-GaN and z-GaN and twin boundaries. The misfit strain between the GaN thin films and substrates is relieved by the generation of edge dislocations in the first and second monolayers of GaN thin films and of misfit interfacial dislocations. It can be demonstrated that the low-energy nitrogen ion assisted molecular beam epitaxy is a technique to produce thin GaN films of high crystalline quality.

  7. Efficient Solar-Induced Photoelectrochemical Response Using Coupling Semiconductor TiO2-ZnO Nanorod Film

    PubMed Central

    Abd Samad, Nur Azimah; Lai, Chin Wei; Lau, Kung Shiuh; Abd Hamid, Sharifah Bee

    2016-01-01

    Efficient solar driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) response by enhancing charge separation has attracted great interest in the hydrogen generation application. The formation of one-dimensional ZnO nanorod structure without bundling is essential for high efficiency in PEC response. In this present research work, ZnO nanorod with an average 500 nm in length and average diameter of about 75 nm was successfully formed via electrodeposition method in 0.05 mM ZnCl2 and 0.1 M KCl electrolyte at 1 V for 60 min under 70 °C condition. Continuous efforts have been exerted to further improve the solar driven PEC response by incorporating an optimum content of TiO2 into ZnO nanorod using dip-coating technique. It was found that 0.25 at % of TiO2 loaded on ZnO nanorod film demonstrated a maximum photocurrent density of 19.78 mA/cm2 (with V vs. Ag/AgCl) under UV illumination and 14.75 mA/cm2 (with V vs. Ag/AgCl) under solar illumination with photoconversion efficiency ~2.9% (UV illumination) and ~4.3% (solar illumination). This performance was approximately 3–4 times higher than ZnO film itself. An enhancement of photocurrent density and photoconversion efficiency occurred due to the sufficient Ti element within TiO2-ZnO nanorod film, which acted as an effective mediator to trap the photo-induced electrons and minimize the recombination of charge carriers. Besides, phenomenon of charge-separation effect at type-II band alignment of Zn and Ti could further enhance the charge carrier transportation during illumination. PMID:28774068

  8. Energy dissipation channels affecting photoluminescence from resonantly excited Er{sup 3+} ions doped in epitaxial ZnO host films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Akazawa, Housei, E-mail: akazawa.housei@lab.ntt.co.jp; Shinojima, Hiroyuki

    2015-04-21

    We identified prerequisite conditions to obtain intense photoluminescence at 1.54 μm from Er{sup 3+} ions doped in ZnO host crystals. The epitaxial ZnO:Er films were grown on sapphire C-plane substrates by sputtering, and Er{sup 3+} ions were resonantly excited at a wavelength of 532 nm between energy levels of {sup 4}I{sub 15/2} and {sup 2}H{sub 11/2}. There is a threshold deposition temperature between 500 and 550 °C, above which epitaxial ZnO films become free of miss-oriented domains. In this case, Er{sup 3+} ions are outside ZnO crystallites, having the same c-axis lattice parameters as those of undoped ZnO crystals. The improved crystallinity wasmore » correlated with enhanced emissions peaking at 1538 nm. Further elevating the deposition temperature up to 650 °C generated cracks in ZnO crystals to relax the lattice mismatch strains, and the emission intensities from cracked regions were three times as large as those from smooth regions. These results can be consistently explained if we assume that emission-active Er{sup 3+} ions are those existing at grain boundaries and bonded to single-crystalline ZnO crystallites. In contrast, ZnO:Er films deposited on a ZnO buffer layer exhibited very weak emissions because of their degraded crystallinity when most Er{sup 3+} ions were accommodated into ZnO crystals. Optimizing the degree of oxidization of ZnO crystals is another important factor because reduced films suffer from non-radiative decay of excited states. The optimum Er content to obtain intense emissions was between 2 and 4 at. %. When 4 at. % was exceeded, the emission intensity was severely attenuated because of concentration quenching as well as the degradation in crystallinity. Precipitation of Er{sub 2}O{sub 3} crystals was clearly observed at 22 at. % for films deposited above 650 °C. Minimizing the number of defects and impurities in ZnO crystals prevents energy dissipation, thus exclusively utilizing the excitation energy to

  9. High Performance and Highly Reliable ZnO Thin Film Transistor Fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition for Next Generation Displays

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2011-08-19

    zinc oxide ( ZnO ) thin film as an active channel layer in TFT has become of great interest owing to their specific...630-0192 Japan Phone: +81-743-72-6060 Fax: +81-743-72-6069 E-mail: uraoka@ms.naist.jp Keywords: zinc oxide , thin film transistors , atomic layer...deposition Symposium topic: Transparent Semiconductors Oxides [Abstract] In this study, we fabricated TFTs using ZnO thin film as the

  10. Study of the effect of ZnO film on some properties of clear and color window glass

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hamead, Alaa A. Abdul; Ahmed, Sura S.; Khdheer, Mena F.

    2018-05-01

    In the current research, a samples of transparent color and colorless window glass were prepared, (includes metal transition oxides) for construction applications. A nano-film layer of zinc oxide ZnO was deposited by spray pyrolysis technique for use in sustainability applications prepared. Structural properties (x-ray diffraction XRD, scanning electron microscopy SEM and atomic force microscopy AFM), and thermal properties, as well as optical properties and the effect of weathering conditions on applied film on clear and colored glass were examined. The results showed that the deposition film had a thickness of less than 90nm and that it was crystallized with high optical transparently, that was not significantly affected after deposited the ZnO nano film. While thermal insulation decreased significantly after deposition, and the effect of the weather conditions was very low as the ZnO coating was not affected, as the thermal insulation did not change after exposure to accelerated air conditions. Make it suitable in glass applications for buildings in vertical construction.

  11. Significant enhancement of yellow-green light emission of ZnO nanorod arrays using Ag island films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, Chin-An; Tsai, Dung-Sheng; Chen, Cheng-Ying; He-Hau, Jr.

    2011-03-01

    Surface plasmon (SP) mediated emission from ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs)/Ag/Si structures has been investigated. The ratio of visible emission to UV emission can be increased by over 30 times via coupling with SP without deterioration of the crystal quality. The fact that the effect of SP crucially depends on the size of Ag island films provides the feasibility to significantly enhance the yellow-green emission of the ZnO nanostructures without sacrificing the crystallinity of ZnO.Surface plasmon (SP) mediated emission from ZnO nanorod arrays (NRAs)/Ag/Si structures has been investigated. The ratio of visible emission to UV emission can be increased by over 30 times via coupling with SP without deterioration of the crystal quality. The fact that the effect of SP crucially depends on the size of Ag island films provides the feasibility to significantly enhance the yellow-green emission of the ZnO nanostructures without sacrificing the crystallinity of ZnO. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c0nr00732c

  12. Effect of pressure-assisted thermal annealing on the optical properties of ZnO thin films.

    PubMed

    Berger, Danielle; Kubaski, Evaldo Toniolo; Sequinel, Thiago; da Silva, Renata Martins; Tebcherani, Sergio Mazurek; Varela, José Arana

    2013-01-01

    ZnO thin films were prepared by the polymeric precursor method. The films were deposited on silicon substrates using the spin-coating technique, and were annealed at 330 °C for 32 h under pressure-assisted thermal annealing and under ambient pressure. Their structural and optical properties were characterized, and the phases formed were identified by X-ray diffraction. No secondary phase was detected. The ZnO thin films were also characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, photoluminescence and ultraviolet emission intensity measurements. The effect of pressure on these thin films modifies the active defects that cause the recombination of deep level states located inside the band gap that emit yellow-green (575 nm) and orange (645 nm) photoluminescence. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  13. Enhanced ZnO Thin-Film Transistor Performance Using Bilayer Gate Dielectrics.

    PubMed

    Alshammari, Fwzah H; Nayak, Pradipta K; Wang, Zhenwei; Alshareef, Husam N

    2016-09-07

    We report ZnO TFTs using Al2O3/Ta2O5 bilayer gate dielectrics grown by atomic layer deposition. The saturation mobility of single layer Ta2O5 dielectric TFT was 0.1 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1), but increased to 13.3 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) using Al2O3/Ta2O5 bilayer dielectric with significantly lower leakage current and hysteresis. We show that point defects present in ZnO film, particularly VZn, are the main reason for the poor TFT performance with single layer dielectric, although interfacial roughness scattering effects cannot be ruled out. Our approach combines the high dielectric constant of Ta2O5 and the excellent Al2O3/ZnO interface quality, resulting in improved device performance.

  14. Structural, Morphological, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of Y, N-Doped and Codoped TiO2 Thin Films

    PubMed Central

    Hamden, Zeineb; Conceição, David; Boufi, Sami; Vieira Ferreira, Luís Filipe; Bouattour, Soraa

    2017-01-01

    Pure TiO2, Y-N single-doped and codoped TiO2 powders and thin films deposited on glass beads were successfully prepared using dip-coating and sol-gel methods. The samples were analyzed using grazing angle X-ray diffraction (GXRD), Raman spectroscopy, time resolved luminescence, ground state diffuse reflectance absorption and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). According to the GXRD patterns and micro-Raman spectra, only the anatase form of TiO2 was made evident. Ground state diffuse reflectance absorption studies showed that doping with N or codoping with N and Y led to an increase of the band gap. Laser induced luminescence analysis revealed a decrease in the recombination rate of the photogenerated holes and electrons. The photocatalytic activity of supported catalysts, toward the degradation of toluidine, revealed a meaningful enhancement upon codoping samples at a level of 2% (atomic ratio). The photocatalytic activity of the material and its reactivity can be attributed to a reduced, but significant, direct photoexcitation of the semiconductor by the halogen lamp, together with a charge-transfer-complex mechanism, or with the formation of surface oxygen vacancies by the N dopant atoms. PMID:28772962

  15. Biocompatibility of GaSb thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nishimoto, Naoki; Fujihara, Junko; Yoshino, Katsumi

    2017-07-01

    GaSb may be suitable for biological applications, such as cellular sensors and bio-medical instrumentation because of its low toxicity compared with As (III) compounds and its band gap energy. Therefore, the biocompatibility and the film properties under physiological conditions were investigated for GaSb thin films with or without a surface coating. GaSb thin films were grown on quartz substrates by RF magnetron sputtering, and then coated with (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane (MPT). The electrical properties, surface morphology, and crystal structure of the GaSb thin film were unaffected by the MPT coating. The cell viability assay suggested that MPT-coated GaSb thin films are biocompatible. Bare GaSb was particularly unstable in pH9 buffer. Ga elution was prevented by the MPT coating, although the Ga concentration in the pH 9 buffer was higher than that in the other solutions. The surface morphology and crystal structure were not changed by exposure to the solutions, except for the pH 9 buffer, and the thin film properties of MPT-coated GaSb exposed to distilled water and H2O2 in saline were maintained. These results indicate that MPT-coated GaSb thin films are biocompatible and could be used for temporary biomedical devices.

  16. Estimation of electron–phonon coupling and Urbach energy in group-I elements doped ZnO nanoparticles and thin films by sol–gel method

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vettumperumal, R.; Kalyanaraman, S., E-mail: mayura_priya2003@yahoo.co.in; Santoshkumar, B.

    Highlights: • Comparison of group-I elements doped ZnO nanoparticles and thin films. • Calculation of electron–phonon coupling and phonon lifetime from Raman spectroscopy. • Estimation of interband states from Urbach energy. - Abstract: Group-I (Li, Na, K & Cs) elements doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) and thin films were prepared using sol–gel method. XRD data and TEM images confirm the absence of any other secondary phase different from wurtzite type ZnO. Spherical shapes of grains are observed from the surfaces of doped ZnO films by atomic force microscope images (AFM) and presences of dopants are confirmed from energy dispersive X-ray spectra.more » The Raman active E{sub 2} (high), E{sub 2} (low), E{sub 1} and A{sub 1} (LO) modes are observed from both ZnO NPs and thin films. First-order longitudinal optical (LO) phonon is found to have contributions from direct band transition and localized excitons. Electron–phonon coupling, phonon lifetime and deformation energy of ZnO are calculated based on the effect of dopants with respect to the multiple Raman LO phonon scattering. Presence of localized interbands states in doped ZnO NPs and thin films are found from the Urbach energy calculations.« less

  17. Enhanced luminescence in Eu-doped ZnO nanocrystalline films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Suzuki, Keigo, E-mail: ksuzuki@murata.com; Murayama, Koji; Tanaka, Nobuhiko

    We found an enhancement of Eu{sup 3+} emissions in Eu-doped ZnO nanocrystalline films fabricated by microemulsion method. The Eu{sup 3+} emission intensities were increased by reducing annealing temperatures from 633 K to 533 K. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that the size reduction enhances the energy transfer from ZnO nanoparticles to Eu{sup 3+} ions. Also, the shift of the charge-transfer band into the low-energy side of the absorption edge is found to be crucial, which seems to expedite the energy transfer from O atoms to Eu{sup 3+} ions. These findings will be useful for the material design of Eu-doped ZnOmore » phosphors.« less

  18. Influence of Ga doping ratio on the saturable absorption mechanism in Ga doped ZnO thin solid films processed by sol-gel spin coating technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sandeep, K. M.; Bhat, Shreesha; Dharmaprakash, S. M.; Byrappa, K.

    2017-03-01

    In the present study, the nonlinear optical properties of sol-gel spin coated gallium doped zinc oxide (GZO) thin solid films are explored with nanosecond laser pulses using the z-scan technique. The higher doping ratios of Ga result in a large redshift of the energy gap (0.38 eV) due to the existence of enhanced grain boundary defects in GZO films. A positive nonlinear absorption coefficient is observed in undoped 1 at.wt.% GZO and 2 at.wt.% GZO films, and a negative nonlinear absorption coefficient in 3 at.wt.% GZO film. Fewer defects in undoped 1% GZO and 2% GZO films resulted in reverse saturable absorption (RSA), whereas a saturable absorption (SA) mechanism is observed in 3% GZO films and is attributed to the enhanced defect concentration in the band structure of GZO. However, all the films showed a self-defocusing mechanism, derived by a closed aperture z-scan technique. The present work sheds light on the defect mechanism involved in the observed nonlinear properties of GZO films.

  19. Ultrasonic vibration imposed on nanoparticle-based ZnO film improves the performance of the ensuing perovskite solar cell

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miao, Yihe; Du, Peng; Wang, Zhiyu; Chen, Qianli; Eslamian, Morteza

    2018-02-01

    This work focuses on the development of nearly annealing-free ZnO-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs), suitable for low-cost manufacturing of PSCs on flexible substrates. To this end, thin film of ZnO nanoparticles is employed as the electron transporting layer (ETL), because of its low-temperature solution-processability and high electron mobility. In order to remove the structural and surface defects, ultrasonic vibration is imposed on the substrate of the as-spun wet ZnO films for a short duration of 3 min. It is shown that the ultrasonic excitation bridges the ZnO nanoparticles (cold sintering), and brings about significant improvement in the ZnO film nanostructure and functionality. In addition, ethyl acetate (EA), as an emerging volatile anti-solvent, is employed to deposit the methylammonium (MA) lead halide perovskite thin film atop the ZnO ETL, in order to prepare perovskite layers that only need an annealing time of 30 s. The ZnO-based PSCs, with a simple structure and free of additional treatments, except for the ultrasonic vibration, exhibit a promising performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 11%, 40% higher than that of the control device. The ultrasonic vibration treatment is facile, low-cost, environmentally friendly, and compatible with the scalable coating and printing techniques, such as spray and blade coating.

  20. The function of an In0.17Al0.83N interlayer in n-ZnO/In0.17Al0.83N/p-GaN heterojunctions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Xiao; Gan, Xuewei; Zhang, Guozhen; Su, Xi; Zheng, Meijuan; Ai, Zhiwei; Wu, Hao; Liu, Chang

    2017-01-01

    ZnO thin films were deposited on p-type GaN with a thin In0.17Al0.83N interlayer, forming double heterostructural diodes of n-ZnO/In0.17Al0.83N/p-GaN. The crystalline quality of the ZnO films was improved and its orientation was kept along < 70 7 bar 4 > that was perpendicular to (10 1 bar 1) plane. The reverse leakage current was reduced by introducing the In0.17Al0.83N interlayer. The electroluminescence spectra of the n-ZnO/In0.17Al0.83N/p-GaN heterojunctions were dominated by p-GaN emissions under forward biases and n-ZnO emissions under reverse biases. The valence-band offset and conduction-band offset between the ZnO and In0.17Al0.83N were determined to be -0.72 and 1.95 eV, respectively.

  1. ZnO Nanoparticles/Reduced Graphene Oxide Bilayer Thin Films for Improved NH3-Sensing Performances at Room Temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tai, Huiling; Yuan, Zhen; Zheng, Weijian; Ye, Zongbiao; Liu, Chunhua; Du, Xiaosong

    2016-03-01

    ZnO nanoparticles and graphene oxide (GO) thin film were deposited on gold interdigital electrodes (IDEs) in sequence via simple spraying process, which was further restored to ZnO/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) bilayer thin film by the thermal reduction treatment and employed for ammonia (NH3) detection at room temperature. rGO was identified by UV-vis absorption spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS) analyses, and the adhesion between ZnO nanoparticles and rGO nanosheets might also be formed. The NH3-sensing performances of pure rGO film and ZnO/rGO bilayer films with different sprayed GO amounts were compared. The results showed that ZnO/rGO film sensors exhibited enhanced response properties, and the optimal GO amount of 1.5 ml was achieved. Furthermore, the optimal ZnO/rGO film sensor showed an excellent reversibility and fast response/recovery rate within the detection range of 10-50 ppm. Meanwhile, the sensor also displayed good repeatability and selectivity to NH3. However, the interference of water molecules on the prepared sensor is non-ignorable; some techniques should be researched to eliminate the effect of moisture in the further work. The remarkably enhanced NH3-sensing characteristics were speculated to be attributed to both the supporting role of ZnO nanoparticles film and accumulation heterojunction at the interface between ZnO and rGO. Thus, the proposed ZnO/rGO bilayer thin film sensor might give a promise for high-performance NH3-sensing applications.

  2. Analysis of SAW properties in ZnO/AlxGa1-xN/c-Al2O3 structures.

    PubMed

    Chen, Ying; Emanetoglu, Nuri William; Saraf, Gaurav; Wu, Pan; Lu, Yicheng; Parekh, Aniruddh; Merai, Vinod; Udovich, Eric; Lu, Dong; Lee, Dong S; Armour, Eric A; Pophristic, Milan

    2005-07-01

    Piezoelectric thin films on high acoustic velocity nonpiezoelectric substrates, such as ZnO, AlN, or GaN deposited on diamond or sapphire substrates, are attractive for high frequency and low-loss surface acoustic wave devices. In this work, ZnO films are deposited on AlxGa1-xN/c-Al2O3 (0 < or = chi < or = 1) substrates using the radio frequency (RF) sputtering technique. In comparison with a single AlxGa1-xN layer deposited on c-Al2O3 with the same total film thickness, a ZnO/AlxGa1-xN/c-Al2O3 multilayer structure provides several advantages, including higher order wave modes with higher velocity and larger electromechanical coupling coefficient (K2). The surface acoustic wave (SAW) velocities and coupling coefficients of the ZnO/AlxGa1-xN/c-Al2O3 structure are tailored as a function of the Al mole percentage in AlxGa1-xN films, and as a function of the ZnO (h1) to AlxGa1-xN (h2) thickness ratio. It is found that a wide thickness-frequency product (hf) region in which coupling is close to its maximum value, K(2)max, can be obtained. The K(2)max of the second order wave mode (h1 = h2) is estimated to be 4.3% for ZnO/GaN/c-Al2O3, and 3.8% for ZnO/AlN/c-Al2O3. The bandwidth of second and third order wave modes, in which the coupling coefficient is within +/- 0.3% of K(2)max, is calculated to be 820 hf for ZnO/GaN/c-Al2O3, and 3620 hf for ZnO/AlN/c-Al2O3. Thus, the hf region in which the coupling coefficient is close to the maximum value broadens with increasing Al content, while K(2)max decreases slightly. When the thickness ratio of AlN to ZnO increases, the K(2)max and hf bandwidth of the second and third higher wave modes increases. The SAW test devices are fabricated and tested. The theoretical and experimental results of velocity dispersion in the ZnO/AlxGa1-xN/c-Al2O3 structures are found to be well matched.

  3. Microstructure and property of diamond-like carbon films with Al and Cr co-doping deposited using a hybrid beams system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dai, Wei; Liu, Jingmao; Geng, Dongsen; Guo, Peng; Zheng, Jun; Wang, Qimin

    2016-12-01

    DLC films with weak carbide former Al and carbide former Cr co-doping (Al:Cr-DLC) were deposited by a hybrid beams system comprising an anode-layer linear ion beam source (LIS) and high power impulse magnetron sputtering using a gas mixture of C2H2 and Ar as the precursor. The doped Al and Cr contents were controlled via adjusting the C2H2 fraction in the gas mixture. The composition, microstructure, compressive stress, mechanical properties and tribological behaviors of the Al:Cr-DLC films were researched carefully using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, stress-tester, nanoindentation and ball-on-plate tribometer as function of the C2H2 fraction. The results show that the Al and Cr contents in the films increased continuously as the C2H2 fraction decreased. The doped Cr atoms preferred to bond with the carbon while the Al atoms mainly existed in metallic state. Structure modulation with alternate multilayer consisted of Al-poor DLC layer and Al-rich DLC layer was found in the films. Those periodic Al-rich DLC layers can effectively release the residual stress of the films. On the other hand, the formation of the carbide component due to Cr incorporation can help to increase the film hardness. Accordingly, the residual stress of the DLC films can be reduced without sacrificing the film hardness though co-doping Al and Cr atoms. Furthermore, it was found that the periodic Al-rich layer can greatly improve the elastic resilience of the DLC films and thus decreases the film friction coefficient and wear rate significantly. However, the existence of the carbide component would cause abrasive wear and thus deteriorate the wear performance of the films.

  4. Defect free C-axis oriented zinc oxide (ZnO) films grown at room temperature using RF magnetron sputtering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kunj, Saurabh; Sreenivas, K.

    2016-05-01

    Radio frequency Magnetron sputtering technique was employed to fabricate ZnO thin films on quartz substrate at room temperature. The effect of varying oxygen to argon (O2/Ar) gas ratio on the structural and photoluminescence properties of the film is analyzed.X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reveals the formation of hexagonal wurtzite structured ZnO thin films with preferred orientation along (002) plane. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization reveals the preparation of highly crystalline films exhibiting intense Ultraviolet (UV) emission with negligible amount of defects as indicated by the absence of Deep Level Emission (DLE) in the PL spectra.

  5. Defect free C-axis oriented zinc oxide (ZnO) films grown at room temperature using RF magnetron sputtering

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kunj, Saurabh, E-mail: saurabhkunj22@gmail.com; Sreenivas, K.

    2016-05-23

    Radio frequency Magnetron sputtering technique was employed to fabricate ZnO thin films on quartz substrate at room temperature. The effect of varying oxygen to argon (O{sub 2}/Ar) gas ratio on the structural and photoluminescence properties of the film is analyzed.X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reveals the formation of hexagonal wurtzite structured ZnO thin films with preferred orientation along (002) plane. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization reveals the preparation of highly crystalline films exhibiting intense Ultraviolet (UV) emission with negligible amount of defects as indicated by the absence of Deep Level Emission (DLE) in the PL spectra.

  6. Effect of concentration and irradiation on the optical and structural properties of ZnO thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis techniques

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adeoye Victor, Babalola

    2017-12-01

    This study involves the preparation of ZnO thin films by spray pyrolysis and to investigate the effect of concentration of the film and irradiation on ZnO thin film deposited by spray pyrolysis method deposited at 350 ± 5 °C. The precursor for zinc oxide was produced from zinc acetate (Zn(CH3COO))2. The samples were annealed at 500 °C for 6 h and irradiated using 137Cs 90.998 mCi radiation. They were then characterised using ultra violet-visible spectrophotometry, X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) with Cu-Kα radiation to determine the structure of the film, Four-point probe for electrical properties and Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) were used for the composition of the film. XRD diffraction peaks observed for 0.05 M ZnO were (1 0 0), (0 0 2), (1 0 1) and (1 1 0) planes for the annealed and irradiated annealed ZnO films with no preferential orientation. The as-deposited films have low peaks belonging to (1 0 0), (0 0 2), (1 0 1), (1 1 0) plane and other peaks such as (1 1 2), (2 0 0) and (2 0 1). The results are explained with regard to the irradiation damage introduced to the samples. The as-deposited, annealed and irradiated-annealed films are highly transparent in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum with an average percent transmittance values of 85% and present a sharp ultraviolet cut-off at approximately 380 nm for the ZnO thin film.

  7. Holistic electronic response underlying the development of magnetism in co-doped diluted magnetic semiconductors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Andriotis, Antonis N.; Menon, Madhu

    2018-05-01

    A systematic analysis of the properties of codoped diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) reveals the role and the effect of the codopants in dictating the magnetic features of the DMSs. Our results indicate that the magnetic features of a codoped DMS is the outcome of synergistic electronic processes of the whole system rather than a local hybridization process isolated from the rest of the system. Specifically, the d-orbital hybridization of the (co)dopants and the introduction of their impurity bands lead to the readjustment of the position of the p-band center of the host’s anions and that of the valence band maximum (VBM). The overall effect of these is to pull the hybridized d-bands of the (co)dopants relative to the Fermi energy, E F , which in turn dictate the value of the magnetic moment of both the dopant as well as the codopant. More precisely, the magnetic moment of a dopant shows an almost linearly increasing (decreasing) variation as the dopant’s d-band center (the latter dictated by the codopant) moves away from (gets closer to) E F . Our results thus suggest a completely new approach in the investigation and understanding of the origin of the defect induced magnetism and support previous reports suggesting the Fermi-energy engineering as a mean for developing high T C DMSs. These trends are demonstrated with results obtained for GaN, GaP, and CdS doped with one of the V, Mn, Co and Cu dopants and codoped with the transition metals of the 3d-series.

  8. Aging effects of the precursor solutions on the properties of spin coated Ga-doped ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Serrao, Felcy Jyothi, E-mail: jyothiserrao@gmail.com; Dharmaprakash, S. M.

    2015-06-24

    In this study, gallium doped zinc oxide thin films (GZO) were grown on a glass substrate by a simple sol-gel process and spin coating technique using zinc acetate and gallium nitrate (3at%) as precursors for Zn and Ga ions respectively. The effects of aging time of the precursor solution on the structural and optical properties of the GZO films were investigated. The surface morphology, grain size, film thickness and optical properties of the GZO films were found to depend directly on the sol aging time. XRD studies reveal that the films are polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and showmore » the c-axis grain orientation. Optical transmittance spectra of all the films exhibited transmittance higher than about 82% within the visible wavelength region. A sharp fundamental absorption edge with a slight blue shifting was observed with an increase in sol aging time which can be explained by Burstein-Moss effect. The result indicates that an appropriate aging time of the sol is important for the improvement of the structural and optical properties of GZO thin films derived from sol-gel method.« less

  9. Chemical and thermal stability of the characteristics of filtered vacuum arc deposited ZnO, SnO2 and zinc stannate thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Çetinörgü, E.; Goldsmith, S.

    2007-09-01

    ZnO, SnO2 and zinc stannate thin films were deposited on commercial microscope glass and UV fused silica substrates using filtered vacuum arc deposition system. During the deposition, the substrate temperature was at room temperature (RT) or at 400 °C. The film structure and composition were determined using x-ray diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The transmission of the films in the VIS was 85% to 90%. The thermal stability of the film electrical resistance was determined in air as a function of the temperature in the range 28 °C (RT) to 200 °C. The resistance of ZnO increased from ~ 5000 to 105 Ω when heated to 200 °C, that of SnO2 films increased from 500 to 3900 Ω, whereas that of zinc stannate thin films increased only from 370 to 470 Ω. During sample cooling to RT, the resistance of ZnO and SnO2 thin films continued to rise considerably; however, the increase in the zinc stannate thin film resistance was significantly lower. After cooling to RT, ZnO and SnO2 thin films became practically insulators, while the resistance of zinc stannate was 680 Ω. The chemical stability of the films was determined by immersing in acidic and basic solutions up to 27 h. The SnO2 thin films were more stable in the HCl solution than the ZnO and the zinc stannate thin films; however, SnO2 and zinc stannate thin films that were immersed in the NaOH solution did not dissolve after 27 h.

  10. Acoustoelectric Effect on the Responses of SAW Sensors Coated with Electrospun ZnO Nanostructured Thin Film

    PubMed Central

    Tasaltin, Cihat; Ebeoglu, Mehmet Ali; Ozturk, Zafer Ziya

    2012-01-01

    In this study, zinc oxide (ZnO) was a very good candidate for improving the sensitivity of gas sensor technology. The preparation of an electrospun ZnO nanostructured thin film on a 433 MHz Rayleigh wave based Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensor and the investigation of the acoustoelectric effect on the responses of the SAW sensor are reported. We prepared an electrospun ZnO nanostructured thin film on the SAW devices by using an electrospray technique. To investigate the dependency of the sensor response on the structure and the number of the ZnO nanoparticles, SAW sensors were prepared with different coating loads. The coating frequency shifts were adjusted to fall between 100 kHz and 2.4 MHz. The sensor measurements were performed against VOCs such as acetone, trichloroethylene, chloroform, ethanol, n-propanol and methanol vapor. The sensor responses of n-propanol have opposite characteristics to the other VOCs, and we attributed these characteristics to the elastic effect/acoustoelectric effect.

  11. Plasmon-enhanced Electrically Light-emitting from ZnO Nanorod Arrays/p-GaN Heterostructure Devices

    PubMed Central

    Lu, Junfeng; Shi, Zengliang; Wang, Yueyue; Lin, Yi; Zhu, Qiuxiang; Tian, Zhengshan; Dai, Jun; Wang, Shufeng; Xu, Chunxiang

    2016-01-01

    Effective and bright light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) have attracted broad interests in fundamental research and industrial application, especially on short wavelength LEDs. In this paper, a well aligned ZnO nanorod arrays grown on the p-GaN substrate to form a heterostructured light-emitting diode and Al nanoparticles (NPs) were decorated to improve the electroluminescence performance. More than 30-folds enhancement of the electroluminescence intensity was obtained compared with the device without Al NPs decoration. The investigation on the stable and transient photoluminescence spectraof the ZnO nanorod arrays before and after Al NPs decoration demonstrated that the metal surface plasmon resonance coupling with excitons of ZnO leads to the enhancement of the internal quantum efficiency (IQE). Our results provide aneffective approach to design novel optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting diodes and plasmonic nanolasers. PMID:27181337

  12. Plasmon-enhanced Electrically Light-emitting from ZnO Nanorod Arrays/p-GaN Heterostructure Devices.

    PubMed

    Lu, Junfeng; Shi, Zengliang; Wang, Yueyue; Lin, Yi; Zhu, Qiuxiang; Tian, Zhengshan; Dai, Jun; Wang, Shufeng; Xu, Chunxiang

    2016-05-16

    Effective and bright light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) have attracted broad interests in fundamental research and industrial application, especially on short wavelength LEDs. In this paper, a well aligned ZnO nanorod arrays grown on the p-GaN substrate to form a heterostructured light-emitting diode and Al nanoparticles (NPs) were decorated to improve the electroluminescence performance. More than 30-folds enhancement of the electroluminescence intensity was obtained compared with the device without Al NPs decoration. The investigation on the stable and transient photoluminescence spectraof the ZnO nanorod arrays before and after Al NPs decoration demonstrated that the metal surface plasmon resonance coupling with excitons of ZnO leads to the enhancement of the internal quantum efficiency (IQE). Our results provide aneffective approach to design novel optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting diodes and plasmonic nanolasers.

  13. Electrical compensation by Ga vacancies in Ga2O3 thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Korhonen, E.; Tuomisto, F.; Gogova, D.; Wagner, G.; Baldini, M.; Galazka, Z.; Schewski, R.; Albrecht, M.

    2015-06-01

    The authors have applied positron annihilation spectroscopy to study the vacancy defects in undoped and Si-doped Ga2O3 thin films. The results show that Ga vacancies are formed efficiently during metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy growth of Ga2O3 thin films. Their concentrations are high enough to fully account for the electrical compensation of Si doping. This is in clear contrast to another n-type transparent semiconducting oxide In2O3, where recent results show that n-type conductivity is not limited by cation vacancies but by other intrinsic defects such as Oi.

  14. Quantitative analysis of optical and recombination losses in Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} thin-film solar cells

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kosyachenko, L. A., E-mail: lakos@chv.ukrpack.net; Lytvynenko, V. Yu.; Maslyanchuk, O. L.

    2016-04-15

    Optical and recombination losses in a Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} thin-film solar cell with a band gap of 1.36–1.38 eV are theoretically analyzed. The optical transmittance of the ZnO and CdS layers through which the radiation penetrates into the absorbing layer is determined. Using optical constants, the optical loss caused by reflection at the interfaces (7.5%) and absorption in the ZnO and CdS layers (10.2%) are found. To calculate the recombination loss, the spectral distribution of the quantum efficiency of CdS/CuIn{sub 1–x}Ga{sub x}Se{sub 2} is investigated. It is demonstrated that, taking the drift and diffusion components of recombination at the front andmore » rear surfaces of the absorber into account, the quantum efficiency spectra of the investigated solar cell can be analytically described in detail. The real parameters of the solar cell are determined by comparing the calculated results and experimental data. In addition, the losses caused by the recombination of photogenerated carriers at the front and rear surfaces of the absorbing layer (1.8% and <0.1%, respectively), at its neutral part (7.6%), and in the space-charge region of the p–n heterojunction (1.0%) are determined. A correction to the parameters of Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} is proposed, which enhances the charge-accumulation efficiency.« less

  15. Spectroscopic Study of Deep Level Emissions from Acceptor Defects in ZnO Thin Films with Oxygen Rich Stoichiometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ilyas, Usman; Rawat, R. S.; Tan, T. L.

    2013-10-01

    This paper reports the tailoring of acceptor defects in oxygen rich ZnO thin films at different post-deposition annealing temperatures (500-800°C) and Mn doping concentrations. The XRD spectra exhibited the nanocrystalline nature of ZnO thin films along with inconsistent variation in lattice parameters suggesting the temperature-dependent activation of structural defects. Photoluminescence emission spectra revealed the temperature dependent variation in deep level emissions (DLE) with the presence of acceptors as dominating defects. The concentration of native defects was estimated to be increased with temperature while a reverse trend was observed for those with increasing doping concentration. A consistent decrease in DLE spectra, with increasing Mn content, revealed the quenching of structural defects in the optical band gap of ZnO favorable for good quality thin films with enhanced optical transparency.

  16. Development and surface characterization of a glucose biosensor based on a nanocolumnar ZnO film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rodrigues, A.; Castegnaro, M. V.; Arguello, J.; Alves, M. C. M.; Morais, J.

    2017-04-01

    Highly oriented nanostructured ZnO films were grown on the surface of stainless steel plates (ZnO/SS) by chemical bath deposition (CBD). The films consisted of vertically aligned ZnO nanocolumns, ∼1 μm long and ∼80 nm wide, as observed by SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and FIB (focused ion beam). XRD (X-ray diffraction) confirmed the c-axis preferred orientation of the ZnO columns, which were functionalized with the glucose oxidase (GOx) enzyme into a biosensor of glucose. The electrochemical response studied by CV (cyclic voltammetry) proved that the biosensor was capable of detecting glucose from 1.5 up to 16 mM concentration range. XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) analysis, excited with synchrotron radiation, probed the atom specific chemical environment at the electrode's surface and shed some light on the nature of the ZnO-GOx interaction.

  17. Nanostructured ZnO films with various morphologies prepared by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and its growing process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, H. L.; Liu, Z. W.; Zeng, D. C.; Zhong, M. L.; Yu, H. Y.; Mikmekova, E.

    2013-10-01

    Nanostructured ZnO films were prepared by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method using Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O as a precursor. The effects of substrate temperature (Ts) on the morphology and properties were systematically studied. As the Ts increased from 430 °C to 610 °C, the morphology of the film transforms from closed packed nanosheets to dense nanocrystalline film and then to hexagonal nanorod array. The dense film formed at a temperature of 550 °C has the lowest electric resistivity and highest carrier concentration. The optical transmittance for all prepared samples was higher than 90%. The photoluminescence (PL) properties varied with the Ts due to the internal defect difference. The growth mechanism of ZnO film involves island growth and diffusion, which was evident by observing the samples prepared at various times.

  18. Synthesis of ZnO thin film by sol-gel spin coating technique for H2S gas sensing application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nimbalkar, Amol R.; Patil, Maruti G.

    2017-12-01

    In this present work, zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film synthesized by a simple sol-gel spin coating technique. The structural, morphology, compositional, microstructural, optical, electrical and gas sensing properties of the film were studied by using XRD, FESEM, EDS, XPS, HRTEM, Raman, FTIR and UV-vis techniques. The ZnO thin film shows hexagonal wurtzite structure with a porous structured morphology. Gas sensing performance of synthesized ZnO thin film was tested initially for H2S gas at different operating temperatures as well as concentrations. The maximum gas response is achieved towards H2S gas at 300 °C operating temperature, at 100 ppm gas concentration as compared to other gases like CH3OH, Cl2, NH3, LPG, CH3COCH3, and C2H5OH with a good stability.

  19. Reduced graphene oxide-ZnO self-assembled films: tailoring the visible light photoconductivity by the intrinsic defect states in ZnO.

    PubMed

    Kavitha, M K; Gopinath, Pramod; John, Honey

    2015-06-14

    ZnO is a wide direct bandgap semiconductor; its absorption can be tuned to the visible spectral region by controlling the intrinsic defect levels. Combining graphene with ZnO can improve its performance by photo-induced charge separation by ZnO and electronic transport through graphene. When reduced graphene oxide-ZnO is prepared by a hydrothermal method, the photophysical studies indicate that oxygen vacancy defect states are healed out by diffusion of oxygen from GO to ZnO during its reduction. Because of the passivation of oxygen vacancies, the visible light photoconductivity of the hybrid is depleted, compared to pure ZnO. In order to overcome this reduction in photocurrent, a photoelectrode is fabricated by layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly of ZnO and reduced graphene oxide. The multilayer films are fabricated by the electrostatic LBL self-assembly technique using negatively charged poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate)-reduced graphene oxide (PSS-rGO) and positively charged polyacrylamide-ZnO (PAM-ZnO) as building blocks. The multilayer films fabricated by this technique will be highly interpenetrating; it will enhance the interaction between the ZnO and rGO perpendicular to the electrode surface. Upon illumination under bias voltage defect assisted excitation occurs in ZnO and the photogenerated charge carriers can transfer to graphene. The electron transferred to graphene sheets can recombine in two ways; either it can recombine with the holes in the valence band of ZnO in its bilayer or the ZnO in the next bilayer. This type of tunnelling of electrons from graphene to the successive bilayers will result in efficient charge transfer. This transfer and propagation of electron will enhance as the number of bilayers increases, which in turn improve the photocurrent of the multilayer films. Therefore this self-assembly technique is an effective approach to fabricate semiconductor-graphene films with excellent conductivity.

  20. Mango core inner shell membrane template-directed synthesis of porous ZnO films and their application for enzymatic glucose biosensor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Yu; Wang, Lei; Ye, Zhizhen; Zhao, Minggang; Cai, Hui; Huang, Jingyun

    2013-11-01

    Micro/nano-porous ZnO films were synthesized through a simple biotemplate-directed method using mango core inner shell membranes as templates. The achieved ZnO films with wrinkles on the surface are combined of large holes and small pores in the bulk. High specific surface area, numerous microspaces, and small channels for fluid circulation provided by this unique structure along with the good biocompatibility and electron communication features of ZnO material make the product an ideal platform for the immobilization of enzymes The fabricated glucose biosensor based on the porous ZnO films exhibits good selective detection ability of analyte with good stability, high sensitivity of 50.58 μA cm-2 mM-1 and a wide linear range of 0.2-5.6 mM along with a low detection limit of 10 μM.

  1. Influence of ZnO seed layer precursor molar ratio on the density of interface defects in low temperature aqueous chemically synthesized ZnO nanorods/GaN light-emitting diodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alnoor, Hatim; Pozina, Galia; Khranovskyy, Volodymyr; Liu, Xianjie; Iandolo, Donata; Willander, Magnus; Nur, Omer

    2016-04-01

    Low temperature aqueous chemical synthesis (LT-ACS) of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) has been attracting considerable research interest due to its great potential in the development of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The influence of the molar ratio of the zinc acetate (ZnAc): KOH as a ZnO seed layer precursor on the density of interface defects and hence the presence of non-radiative recombination centers in LT-ACS of ZnO NRs/GaN LEDs has been systematically investigated. The material quality of the as-prepared seed layer as quantitatively deduced by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is found to be influenced by the molar ratio. It is revealed by spatially resolved cathodoluminescence that the seed layer molar ratio plays a significant role in the formation and the density of defects at the n-ZnO NRs/p-GaN heterostructure interface. Consequently, LED devices processed using ZnO NRs synthesized with molar ratio of 1:5 M exhibit stronger yellow emission (˜575 nm) compared to those based on 1:1 and 1:3 M ratios as measured by the electroluminescence. Furthermore, seed layer molar ratio shows a quantitative dependence of the non-radiative defect densities as deduced from light-output current characteristics analysis. These results have implications on the development of high-efficiency ZnO-based LEDs and may also be helpful in understanding the effects of the ZnO seed layer on defect-related non-radiative recombination.

  2. Polarity control of GaN epitaxial films grown on LiGaO2(001) substrates and its mechanism.

    PubMed

    Zheng, Yulin; Wang, Wenliang; Li, Xiaochan; Li, Yuan; Huang, Liegen; Li, Guoqiang

    2017-08-16

    The polarity of GaN epitaxial films grown on LiGaO 2 (001) substrates by pulsed laser deposition has been well controlled. It is experimentally proved that the GaN epitaxial films grown on nitrided LiGaO 2 (001) substrates reveal Ga-polarity, while the GaN epitaxial films grown on non-nitrided LiGaO 2 (001) substrates show N-polarity. The growth mechanisms for these two cases are systematically studied by first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. Theoretical calculation presents that the adsorption of a Ga atom preferentially occurs at the center of three N atoms stacked on the nitrided LiGaO 2 (001) substrates, which leads to the formation of Ga-polarity GaN. Whereas the adsorption of a Ga atom preferentially deposits at the top of a N atom stacked on the non-nitrided LiGaO 2 (001) substrates, which results in the formation of N-polarity GaN. This work of controlling the polarity of GaN epitaxial films is of paramount importance for the fabrication of group-III nitride devices for various applications.

  3. ZnO buffer layer for metal films on silicon substrates

    DOEpatents

    Ihlefeld, Jon

    2014-09-16

    Dramatic improvements in metallization integrity and electroceramic thin film performance can be achieved by the use of the ZnO buffer layer to minimize interfacial energy between metallization and adhesion layers. In particular, the invention provides a substrate metallization method utilizing a ZnO adhesion layer that has a high work of adhesion, which in turn enables processing under thermal budgets typically reserved for more exotic ceramic, single-crystal, or metal foil substrates. Embodiments of the present invention can be used in a broad range of applications beyond ferroelectric capacitors, including microelectromechanical systems, micro-printed heaters and sensors, and electrochemical energy storage, where integrity of metallized silicon to high temperatures is necessary.

  4. Mobility enhancement in crystalline In-Ga-Zn-oxide with In-rich compositions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tsutsui, Kazuhiro; Matsubayashi, Daisuke; Ishihara, Noritaka

    The electron mobility of In-Ga-Zn-oxide (IGZO) is known to be enhanced by higher In content. We theoretically investigated the mobility-enhancement mechanism by proposing an In-Ga-Zn-disorder scattering model for an In-rich crystalline IGZO (In{sub 1+x}Ga{sub 1−x}O{sub 3}(ZnO){sub m} (0 < x < 1, m > 0)) thin film. The obtained theoretical mobility was found to be in agreement with experimental Hall mobility for a crystalline In{sub 1.5}Ga{sub 0.5}O{sub 3}(ZnO) (or In{sub 3}GaZn{sub 2}O{sub 8}) thin film. The mechanism specific to In-rich crystalline IGZO thin films is based on three types of Coulomb scattering potentials that originate from effective valence differences. In this study, the In-Ga-Zn-disorder scattering modelmore » indicates that the effective valence of the In{sup 3+} ions in In-rich crystalline IGZO thin films significantly affects their electron mobility.« less

  5. Sub-micron Polymer–Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Layered Hybrids via Controlled Chemical Transformation of Naked ZnO Nanocrystal Films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Meckler, Stephen M.; Li, Changyi; Queen, Wendy L.

    2015-11-02

    Here we show that sub-micron coatings of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and even ZIF–ZIF bilayers can be grown directly on polymers of intrinsic microporosity from zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystal precursor films, yielding a new class of all-microporous layered hybrids. The ZnO-to-ZIF chemical transformation proceeded in less than 30 min under microwave conditions using a solution of the imidazole ligand in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), water, or mixtures thereof. By varying the ratio of DMF to water, it was possible to control the morphology of the ZIF-on-polymer from isolated crystallites to continuous films. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction was used to confirm the presencemore » of crystalline ZIF in the thin films, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to quantify film purity, revealing films with little to no residual ZnO. The role solvent plays in the transformation mechanism is discussed in light of these findings, which suggest the ZnO nanocrystals may be necessary to localize heterogeneous nucleation of the ZIF to the polymer surface.« less

  6. Sub-micron Polymer–Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework Layered Hybrids via Controlled Chemical Transformation of Naked ZnO Nanocrystal Films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Meckler, Stephen M.; Li, Changyi; Queen, Wendy L.

    Here we show that sub-micron coatings of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and even ZIF–ZIF bilayers can be grown directly on polymers of intrinsic microporosity from zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystal precursor films, yielding a new class of all-microporous layered hybrids. The ZnO-to-ZIF chemical transformation proceeded in less than 30 min under microwave conditions using a solution of the imidazole ligand in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), water, or mixtures thereof. By varying the ratio of DMF to water, it was possible to control the morphology of the ZIF-on-polymer from isolated crystallites to continuous films. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction was used to confirm the presencemore » of crystalline ZIF in the thin films, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to quantify film purity, revealing films with little to no residual ZnO. The role solvent plays in the transformation mechanism is discussed in light of these findings, which suggest the ZnO nanocrystals may be necessary to localize heterogeneous nucleation of the ZIF to the polymer surface.« less

  7. Perovskite solar cells based on nanocolumnar plasma-deposited ZnO thin films.

    PubMed

    Ramos, F Javier; López-Santos, Maria C; Guillén, Elena; Nazeeruddin, Mohammad Khaja; Grätzel, Michael; Gonzalez-Elipe, Agustin R; Ahmad, Shahzada

    2014-04-14

    ZnO thin films having a nanocolumnar microstructure are grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at 423 K on pre-treated fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. The films consist of c-axis-oriented wurtzite ZnO nanocolumns with well-defined microstructure and crystallinity. By sensitizing CH3NH3PbI3 on these photoanodes a power conversion of 4.8% is obtained for solid-state solar cells. Poly(triarylamine) is found to be less effective when used as the hole-transport material, compared to 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9'-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD), while the higher annealing temperature of the perovskite leads to a better infiltration in the nanocolumnar structure and an enhancement of the cell efficiency. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  8. The characterization of Cr secondary oxide phases in ZnO films studied by X-ray spectroscopy and photoemission spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chiou, J. W.; Chang, S. Y.; Huang, W. H.; Chen, Y. T.; Hsu, C. W.; Hu, Y. M.; Chen, J. M.; Chen, C.-H.; Kumar, K.; Guo, J.-H.

    2011-03-01

    X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the Cr secondary oxide phases in ZnO films that had been prepared using a co-sputtering method. Analysis of the Cr L3,2-edge XANES spectra reveals that the intensity of white-line features decreases subtly as the sputtering power increases, indicating that the occupation of Cr 3 d orbitals increases with Cr concentration in (Zn, Cr)O films. The O K-edge spectra show that the intensity of XANES features of (Zn, Cr)O films is lower than those of ZnO film, suggesting enhanced occupation of O 2 p-derived states through O 2 p-Cr 3 d hybridization. The XES and XPS spectra indicate that the line shapes in the valence band of (Zn, Cr)O films are quite different from those of ZnO and that the Cr 2O 3 phase dominates the spinel structure of (Zn, Cr)O films increasingly as the Cr sputtering power is increased. Over all results suggest that the non-ferromagnetic behavior of (Zn, Cr)O films can be attributed to the dominant presence of Cr 2O 3, whereas the bulk comprise phase segregations of Cr 2O 3 and/or ZnCr 2O 4, which results them the most stable TM-doped ZnO material against etching.

  9. The structural and optical properties of Y (Y  =  Al, B, Si and Ti)-doped ZnO nano thin films from the first principles calculations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Wenshu; Hu, Huijun; Zhang, Caili; Li, Jianguo; Li, Yuping; Ling, Lixia; Han, Peide

    2017-12-01

    Based on the density functional theory, the structural stability and optical properties of undoped and Y (Y  =  Al, B, Si and Ti)-doped ZnO nano thin films are investigated. The good stability of the films based on the ZnO (0 0 0 1) can be obtained when the layer is larger than 12. Moreover, the dielectric function, refractive index, absorption, and reflectivity of doped ZnO nano thin films have been analyzed in detail. In the visible light range, the values of ZnO films from 12 to 24 layers are all smaller than those of the bulk. And with the augment of the layers, the values keep increasing. All the results signify that the nano film of 12 layers possesses the lowest reflectivity and weakest absorption. In addition, there is an evident impact of some doped element on the properties of nano films. The absorption and reflectivity of Ti, Si-doped ZnO nano thin films are higher than those of the clean films, while Al, B-doped are lower, especially B-doped. Moreover, the conductivity of the doped structure is better than that of the bulk. Thus, the B-doped ZnO nano thin films could be potential candidate materials of transparent conductive films.

  10. Investigations of rapid thermal annealing induced structural evolution of ZnO: Ge nanocomposite thin films via GISAXS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ceylan, Abdullah, E-mail: aceylanabd@yahoo.com; Ozcan, Yusuf; Orujalipoor, Ilghar

    2016-06-07

    In this work, we present in depth structural investigations of nanocomposite ZnO: Ge thin films by utilizing a state of the art grazing incidence small angle x-ray spectroscopy (GISAXS) technique. The samples have been deposited by sequential r.f. and d.c. sputtering of ZnO and Ge thin film layers, respectively, on single crystal Si(100) substrates. Transformation of Ge layers into Ge nanoparticles (Ge-np) has been initiated by ex-situ rapid thermal annealing of asprepared thin film samples at 600 °C for 30, 60, and 90 s under forming gas atmosphere. A special attention has been paid on the effects of reactive and nonreactivemore » growth of ZnO layers on the structural evolution of Ge-np. GISAXS analyses have been performed via cylindrical and spherical form factor calculations for different nanostructure types. Variations of the size, shape, and distributions of both ZnO and Ge nanostructures have been determined. It has been realized that GISAXS results are not only remarkably consistent with the electron microscopy observations but also provide additional information on the large scale size and shape distribution of the nanostructured components.« less

  11. Energy Level Alignment at Aqueous GaN and ZnO Interfaces

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hybertsen, Mark S.; Kharche, Neerav; Muckerman, James T.

    2014-03-01

    Electronic energy level alignment at semiconductor-electrolyte interfaces is fundamental to electrochemical activity. Motivated in particular by the search for new materials that can be more efficient for photocatalysis, we develop a first principles method to calculate this alignment at aqueous interfaces and demonstrate it for the specific case of non-polar GaN and ZnO interfaces with water. In the first step, density functional theory (DFT) based molecular dynamics is used to sample the physical interface structure and to evaluate the electrostatic potential step at the interface. In the second step, the GW approach is used to evaluate the reference electronic energy level separately in the bulk semiconductor (valence band edge energy) and in bulk water (the 1b1 energy level), relative to the internal electrostatic energy reference. Use of the GW approach naturally corrects for errors inherent in the use of Kohn-Sham energy eigenvalues to approximate the electronic excitation energies in each material. With this predicted interface alignment, specific redox levels in water, with potentials known relative to the 1b1 level, can then be compared to the semiconductor band edge positions. Our results will be discussed in the context of experiments in which photoexcited GaN and ZnO drive the hydrogen evolution reaction. Research carried out at Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886 with the U.S. Department of Energy.

  12. Surface plasmon optical sensor with enhanced sensitivity using top ZnO thin film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bao, Ming; Li, Ge; Jiang, Dongmei; Cheng, Wenjuan; Ma, Xueming

    2012-05-01

    Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is one of the most sensitive label-free detection methods and has been used in a wide range of chemical and biochemical sensing. Upon using a 200 nm top layer of dielectric film with a high value of the real part ɛ' of the dielectric function, on top of an SPR sensor in the Kretschmann configuration, the sensitivity is improved. The refractive index effect of dielectric film on sensitivity is usually ignored. Dielectric films with different refractive indices were prepared by radio frequency magnetron (RF) sputtering and measured with spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The imaginary part ɛ'' of the top nanolayer permittivity needs to be small enough in order to reduce the losses and get sharper dips. The stability of the sensor is also improved because the nanolayer is protecting the Ag film from interacting with the environment. The response curves of the Ag/ZnO chips were obtained by using SPR sensor. Theoretical analysis of the sensitivity of the SPR sensors with different ZnO film refractive indices is presented and studied. Both experimental and simulation results show that the Ag/ZnO films exhibit an enhanced SPR over the pure Ag film with a narrower full width at half maximum (FWHM). It shows that the top ZnO layer is effective in enhancing the surface plasmon resonance and thus its sensitivity.

  13. Dual nature of acceptors in GaN and ZnO: The curious case of the shallow MgGa deep state

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lany, Stephan; Zunger, Alex

    2010-04-01

    Employing a Koopmans corrected density functional method, we find that the metal-site acceptors Mg, Be, and Zn in GaN and Li in ZnO bind holes in deep levels that are largely localized at single anion ligand atoms. In addition to this deep ground state (DGS), we observe an effective-masslike delocalized state that can exist as a short lived shallow transient state (STS). The Mg dopant in GaN represents the unique case where the ionization energy of the localized deep level exceeds only slightly that of the shallow effective-mass acceptor, which explains why Mg works so exceptionally well as an acceptor dopant.

  14. Vibrationally induced center reconfiguration in co-doped GaN:Eu, Mg epitaxial layers: Local hydrogen migration vs. activation of non-radiative channels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mitchell, B.; Lee, D.; Lee, D.; Fujiwara, Y.; Dierolf, V.

    2013-12-01

    Europium doped gallium nitride (GaN:Eu) is a promising candidate as a material for red light emitting diodes. When Mg was co-doped into GaN:Eu, additional incorporation environments were discovered that show high excitation efficiency at room temperature and have been attributed to the coupling of Mg-H complexes to the majority Eu site. Electron beam irradiation, indirect and resonant (direct) laser excitation were found to modify these complexes, indicating that vibrational energy alone can trigger the migration of the H while the presence of additional charges and excess energy controls the type of reconfiguration and the activation of non-radiative decay channels.

  15. Organic–Inorganic Eu3+/Tb3+ codoped hybrid films for temperature mapping in integrated circuits

    PubMed Central

    Brites, Carlos D. S.; Lima, Patrícia P.; Silva, Nuno J. O.; Millán, Angel; Amaral, Vitor S.; Palacio, Fernando; Carlos, Luís D.

    2013-01-01

    The continuous decrease on the geometric size of electronic devices and integrated circuits generates higher local power densities and localized heating problems that cannot be characterized by conventional thermographic techniques. Here, a self-referencing intensity-based molecular thermometer involving a di-ureasil organic-inorganic hybrid thin film co-doped with Eu3+ and Tb3+ tris (β-diketonate) chelates is used to obtain the temperature map of a FR4 printed wiring board with spatio-temporal resolutions of 0.42 μm/4.8 ms. PMID:24790938

  16. Ultrathin ZnS and ZnO Interfacial Passivation Layers for Atomic-Layer-Deposited HfO2 Films on InP Substrates.

    PubMed

    Kim, Seung Hyun; Joo, So Yeong; Jin, Hyun Soo; Kim, Woo-Byoung; Park, Tae Joo

    2016-08-17

    Ultrathin ZnS and ZnO films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) were employed as interfacial passivation layers (IPLs) for HfO2 films on InP substrates. The interfacial layer growth during the ALD of the HfO2 film was effectively suppressed by the IPLs, resulting in the decrease of electrical thickness, hysteresis, and interface state density. Compared with the ZnO IPL, the ZnS IPL was more effective in reducing the interface state density near the valence band edge. The leakage current density through the film was considerably lowered by the IPLs because the film crystallization was suppressed. Especially for the film with the ZnS IPL, the leakage current density in the low-voltage region was significantly lower than that observed for the film with the ZnO IPL, because the direct tunneling current was suppressed by the higher conduction band offset of ZnS with the InP substrate.

  17. Synthesis of ZnO nanowires for thin film network transistors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dalal, S. H.; Unalan, H. E.; Zhang, Y.; Hiralal, Pritesh; Gangloff, L.; Flewitt, Andrew J.; Amaratunga, Gehan A. J.; Milne, William I.

    2008-08-01

    Zinc oxide nanowire networks are attractive as alternatives to organic and amorphous semiconductors due to their wide bandgap, flexibility and transparency. We demonstrate the fabrication of thin film transistors (TFT)s which utilize ZnO nanowires as the semiconducting channel. These thin film transistors can be transparent and flexible and processed at low temperatures on to a variety of substrates. The nanowire networks are created using a simple contact transfer method that is easily scalable. Apparent nanowire network mobility values can be as high as 3.8 cm2/Vs (effective thin film mobility: 0.03 cm2/Vs) in devices with 20μm channel lengths and ON/OFF ratios of up to 104.

  18. Controlled growth of c-axis oriented ZnO nanorod array films by electrodeposition method and characterization.

    PubMed

    Arslan, Andaç; Hür, Evrim; Ilican, Saliha; Caglar, Yasemin; Caglar, Mujdat

    2014-07-15

    ZnO nanorod array films were deposited from aqueous solution containing different concentrations (1×10(-2) M and 5×10(-3) M) Zn(NO3)2⋅6H2O and C6H12N4 and at different electrodeposition times (i.e., 15 min, 30 min, 60 min, 120 min and 180 min) using chronoamperometry method on p-Si substrate. Surface morphology and crystal structural properties of ZnO films were investigated by XRD and FESEM to select ZnO films which have optimum properties. The highest TC(hkl) value was observed in (002) plane for the film, which is deposited at 1×10(-2) M and 120 min. It is also observed that the highly oriented nanorods in this film are denser. Additionally, the conductivity type was determined by using Mott-Schottky which is electrochemical impedance spectroscopy method (EIS). On the other hand, to investigate the utility of obtained ZnO on p-Si (p-Si/n-ZnO) as supercapacitor electrode active material, the electrochemical storage properties of p-Si/ZnO was studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and repeating chronopotentiometry methods. It is suggested from electrochemical tests results that p-Si/ZnO is a promising electrode materials for supercapacitor applications that required low voltage (<10 V). Rectifiying behavior was observed from the I-V characteristic of nanorod array n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diode. The n value, Io and the ϕb were found to be 5.48, 1.93×10(-8) A and 0.75 eV, respectively. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Al-doped ZnO seed layer-dependent crystallographic control of ZnO nanorods by using electrochemical deposition

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Son, Hyo-Soo; Choi, Nak-Jung; Kim, Kyoung-Bo

    Highlights: • Polar and semipolar ZnO NRs were successfully achieved by hydrothermal synthesis. • Semipolar and polar ZnO NRs were grown on ZnO and AZO/m-sapphire, respectively. • Al % of AZO/m-sapphire enhanced the lateral growth rate of polar ZnO NRs. - Abstract: We investigated the effect of an Al-doped ZnO film on the crystallographic direction of ZnO nanorods (NRs) using electrochemical deposition. From high-solution X-ray diffraction measurements, the crystallographic plane of ZnO NRs grown on (1 0 0) ZnO/m-plane sapphire was (1 0 1). The surface grain size of the (100) Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film decreased with increasing Al contentmore » in the ZnO seed layer, implying that the Al dopant accelerated the three-dimensional (3D) growth of the AZO film. In addition, it was found that with increasing Al doping concentration of the AZO seed layer, the crystal orientation of the ZnO NRs grown on the AZO seed layer changed from [1 0 1] to [0 0 1]. With increasing Al content of the nonpolar (1 0 0) AZO seed layer, the small surface grains with a few crystallographic planes of the AZO film changed from semipolar (1 0 1) ZnO NRs to polar (0 0 1) ZnO NRs due to the increase of the vertical [0 0 1] growth rate of the ZnO NRs owing to excellent electrical properties.« less

  20. In-situ co-doping of sputter-deposited TiO2:WN films for the development of photoanodes intended for visible-light electro-photocatalytic degradation of emerging pollutants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delegan, N.; Pandiyan, R.; Komtchou, S.; Dirany, A.; Drogui, P.; El Khakani, M. A.

    2018-05-01

    We report on the magnetron sputtering deposition of in-situ codoped TiO2:WN films intended for electro-photocatalytic (EPC) applications under solar irradiation. By varying the RF-magnetron sputtering deposition parameters, we were able to tune the in-situ incorporation of both N and W dopants in the TiO2 films over a wide concentration range (i.e., 0-9 at. % for N and 0-3 at. % for W). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that both dopants are mostly of a substitutional nature. The analysis of the UV-Vis transmission spectra of the films confirmed that the optical bandgap of both TiO2:N and TiO2:WN films can be significantly narrowed (from 3.2 eV for undoped-TiO2 down to ˜2.3 eV for the doped ones) by tuning their dopant concentrations. We were thus able to pinpoint an optimal window for both dopants (N and W) where the TiO2:WN films exhibit the narrowest bandgap. Moreover, the optimal codoping conditions greatly reduce the recombination defect state density compared to the monodoped TiO2:N films. These electronically passivated TiO2:WN films are shown to be highly effective for the EPC degradation of atrazine (pesticide pollutant) under sunlight irradiation (93% atrazine degraded after only 30 min of EPC treatment). Indeed, the optimally codoped TiO2:WN photoanodes were found to be more efficient than both the undoped-TiO2 and equally photosensitized TiO2:N photoanodes (by ˜70% and ˜25%, respectively) under AM1.5 irradiation.

  1. Electrical properties of solution-deposited ZnO thin-film transistors by low-temperature annealing.

    PubMed

    Lim, Chul; Oh, Ji Young; Koo, Jae Bon; Park, Chan Woo; Jung, Soon-Won; Na, Bock Soon; Chu, Hye Yong

    2014-11-01

    Flexible oxide thin-film transistors (Oxide-TFTs) have emerged as next generation transistors because of their applicability in electronic device. In particular, the major driving force behind solution-processed zinc oxide film research is its prospective use in printing for electronics. A low-temperature process to improve the performance of solution-processed n-channel ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated via spin-coating and inkjet-printing is introduced here. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized using a facile sonochemical method that was slightly modified based on a previously reported method. The influence of the annealing atmosphere on both nanoparticle-based TFT devices fabricated via spin-coating and those created via inkjet printing was investigated. For the inkjet-printed TFTs, the characteristics were improved significantly at an annealing temperature of 150 degrees C. The field effect mobility, V(th), and the on/off current ratios were 3.03 cm2/Vs, -3.3 V, and 10(4), respectively. These results indicate that annealing at 150 degrees C 1 h is sufficient to obtain a mobility (μ(sat)) as high as 3.03 cm2/Vs. Also, the active layer of the solution-based ZnO nanoparticles allowed the production of high-performance TFTs for low-cost, large-area electronics and flexible devices.

  2. The origin of the residual conductivity of GaN films on ferroelectric materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Kyoung-Keun; Cai, Zhuhua; Ziemer, Katherine; Doolittle, William Alan

    2009-08-01

    In this paper, the origin of the conductivity of GaN films grown on ferroelectric materials was investigated using XPS, AES, and XRD analysis tools. Depth profiles confirmed the existence of impurities in the GaN film originating from the substrates. Bonding energy analysis from XPS and AES verified that oxygen impurities from the substrates were the dominant origin of the conductivity of the GaN film. Furthermore, Ga-rich GaN films have a greater chance of enhancing diffusion of lithium oxide from the substrates, resulting in more substrate phase separation and a wider inter-mixed region confirmed by XRD. Therefore, the direct GaN film growth on ferroelectric materials causes impurity diffusion from the substrates, resulting in highly conductive GaN films. Future work needs to develop non-conductive buffer layers for impurity suppression in order to obtain highly resistive GaN films.

  3. Correlation of structural properties with energy transfer of Eu-doped ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel process and magnetron reactive sputtering

    PubMed Central

    Petersen, Julien; Brimont, Christelle; Gallart, Mathieu; Schmerber, Guy; Gilliot, Pierre; Ulhaq-Bouillet, Corinne; Rehspringer, Jean-Luc; Colis, Silviu; Becker, Claude; Slaoui, Abdelillah; Dinia, Aziz

    2010-01-01

    We investigated the structural and optical properties of Eu-doped ZnO thin films made by sol-gel technique and magnetron reactive sputtering on Si (100) substrate. The films elaborated by sol-gel process are polycrystalline while the films made by sputtering show a strongly textured growth along the c-axis. X-ray diffraction patterns and transmission electron microscopy analysis show that all samples are free of spurious phases. The presence of Eu2+ and Eu3+ into the ZnO matrix has been confirmed by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. This means that a small fraction of Europium substitutes Zn2+ as Eu2+ into the ZnO matrix; the rest of Eu being in the trivalent state. This is probably due to the formation of Eu2O3 oxide at the surface of ZnO particles. This is at the origin of the strong photoluminescence band observed at 2 eV, which is characteristic of the 5D0→7F2 Eu3+ transition. In addition the photoluminescence excitonic spectra showed efficient energy transfer from the ZnO matrix to the Eu3+ ion, which is qualitatively similar for both films although the sputtered films have a better structural quality compared to the sol-gel process grown films. PMID:20644657

  4. Physical and electrochemical properties of ZnO films fabricated from highly cathodic electrodeposition potentials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ismail, Abdul Hadi; Abdullah, Abdul Halim; Sulaiman, Yusran

    2017-03-01

    The physical and electrochemical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) film electrode that were prepared electrochemically were studied. ZnO was electrodeposited on ITO glass substrate by applying three different highly cathodic potentials (-1.3 V, -1.5 V, -1.7 V) in a solution containing 70 mM of Zn(NO3)2.xH2O and 0.1 M KCl with bath temperatures of 70 °C and 80 °C. The presence of ZnO was asserted from XRD analysis where the corresponding peaks in the spectra were assigned. SEM images revealed the plate-like hexagonal morphology of ZnO which is in agreement with the XRD analysis. The areal capacitance of the ZnO was observed to increase when the applied electrodeposition potential is increased from -1.3 V to -1.5 V. However, the areal capacitance is found to decrease when the applied electrodeposition potential is further increased to -1.7 V. The resistance of charge transfer (Rct) of the ZnO decreased when the applied electrodeposition potential varies from -1.3 V to -1.7 V due to the decreased particle size of ZnO when more cathodic electrodeposition potential is applied.

  5. Synthesis of ALD zinc oxide and thin film materials optimization for UV photodetector applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tapily, Kandabara Nouhoum

    Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a direct, wide bandgap semiconductor material. It is thermodynamically stable in the wurtzite structure at ambient temperature conditions. ZnO has very interesting optical and electrical properties and is a suitable candidate for numerous optoelectronic applications such as solar cells, LEDs and UV-photodetectors. ZnO is a naturally n-type semiconductor. Due to the lack of reproducible p-type ZnO, achieving good homojunction ZnO-based photodiodes such as UV-photodetectors remains a challenge. Meanwhile, heterojunction structures of ZnO with p-type substrates such as SiC, GaN, NiO, AlGaN, Si etc. are used; however, those heterojunction diodes suffer from low efficiencies. ZnO is an n-type material with numerous intrinsic defect levels responsible for the electrical and optical behaviors. Presently, there is no clear consensus about the origin of those defects. In this work, ZnO was synthesized by atomic layer deposition (ALD). ALD is a novel deposition technique suitable for nanotechnology engineering that provides unique features such as precise control of ZnO thin film with atomic resolution, high uniformity, good conformity and high aspect ratio. Using this novel deposition technique, the ALD ZnO deposition process was developed and optimized using diethyl zinc as the precursor for zinc and water vapor as the oxygen source. In order to optimize the film quality for use in electronic applications, the physical, mechanical and electrical properties were investigated. The structural and mechanical properties of the ALD ZnO thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), spectroscopic Ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, UV-VIS absorption and nanoindentation. The electrical characterizations were performed using C-V, I-V, DLTS, Hall Effect, and four-point probe. The intrinsic defects responsible

  6. Influence of ZnO seed layer precursor molar ratio on the density of interface defects in low temperature aqueous chemically synthesized ZnO nanorods/GaN light-emitting diodes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Alnoor, Hatim, E-mail: hatim.alnoor@liu.se; Iandolo, Donata; Willander, Magnus

    Low temperature aqueous chemical synthesis (LT-ACS) of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods (NRs) has been attracting considerable research interest due to its great potential in the development of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The influence of the molar ratio of the zinc acetate (ZnAc): KOH as a ZnO seed layer precursor on the density of interface defects and hence the presence of non-radiative recombination centers in LT-ACS of ZnO NRs/GaN LEDs has been systematically investigated. The material quality of the as-prepared seed layer as quantitatively deduced by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is found to be influenced by the molar ratio. It is revealedmore » by spatially resolved cathodoluminescence that the seed layer molar ratio plays a significant role in the formation and the density of defects at the n-ZnO NRs/p-GaN heterostructure interface. Consequently, LED devices processed using ZnO NRs synthesized with molar ratio of 1:5 M exhibit stronger yellow emission (∼575 nm) compared to those based on 1:1 and 1:3 M ratios as measured by the electroluminescence. Furthermore, seed layer molar ratio shows a quantitative dependence of the non-radiative defect densities as deduced from light-output current characteristics analysis. These results have implications on the development of high-efficiency ZnO-based LEDs and may also be helpful in understanding the effects of the ZnO seed layer on defect-related non-radiative recombination.« less

  7. ZnO nanotube waveguide arrays on graphene films for local optical excitation on biological cells

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baek, Hyeonjun; Kwak, Hankyul; Song, Minho S.; Ha, Go Eun; Park, Jongwoo; Tchoe, Youngbin; Hyun, Jerome K.; Park, Hye Yoon; Cheong, Eunji; Yi, Gyu-Chul

    2017-04-01

    We report on scalable and position-controlled optical nanoprobe arrays using ZnO nanotube waveguides on graphene films for use in local optical excitation. For the waveguide fabrication, position-controlled and well-ordered ZnO nanotube arrays were grown on chemical vapor deposited graphene films with a submicron patterned mask layer and Au prepared between the interspace of nanotubes. Mammalian cells were cultured on the nanotube waveguide arrays and were locally excited by light illuminated through the nanotubes. Fluorescence and optogenetic signals could be excited through the optical nanoprobes. This method offers the ability to investigate cellular behavior with a high spatial resolution that surpasses the current limitation.

  8. Microstructure study of ZnO thin films on Si substrate grown by MOCVD

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Jingyun; Ye, Zhizhen; Lu, Huanming; Wang, Lei; Zhao, Binghui; Li, Xianhang

    2007-08-01

    The microstructure of zinc oxide thin films on silicon substrates grown by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) was characterized. The cross-sectional bright-field transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image showed that small ZnO columnar grains were embedded into large columnar grains, and the selected-area electron diffraction pattern showed that the ZnO/Si thin films were nearly c-axis oriented. The deviation angle along the ZnO (0 0 0 1) direction with respect to the growth direction of Si (1 0 0) was no more than 5°. The [0 0 0 1]-tilt grain boundaries in ZnO/Si thin films were investigated symmetrically by plan-view high resolution TEM. The boundaries can be classified into three types: low-angle boundaries described as an irregular array of edge dislocations, boundaries of near 30° angle with (1\\,0\\,\\bar{1}\\,0) facet structures and large-angle boundaries with symmetric structure which could be explained by a low Σ coincident site lattice structure mode. The research was useful to us for finding optimized growth conditions to improve ZnO/Si thin film quality.

  9. Structural and optical properties of DC magnetron sputtered ZnO films on glass substrate and their modification by Ag ions implantation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ahmad, R.; Afzal, Naveed; Amjad, U.; Jabbar, S.; Hussain, T.; Hussnain, A.

    2017-07-01

    This work is focused on investigating the effects of deposition time and Ag ions implantation on structural and optical properties of ZnO film. The ZnO film was prepared on glass substrate by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering of pure Zn target in reactive oxygen environment for 2 h, 3 h, 4 h and 5 h respectively. X-ray diffraction results revealed polycrystalline ZnO film whose crystallinity was improved with increase of the deposition time. The morphological features indicated agglomeration of smaller grains into larger ones by increasing the deposition time. The UV-vis spectroscopy analysis depicted a small decrease in the band gap of ZnO from 3.36 eV to 3.27 eV with increase of deposition time. The Ag ions implantation in ZnO films deposited for 5 h on glass was carried out by using Pelletron Accelerator at different ions fluences ranging from 1  ×  1011 ions cm-2 to 2  ×  1012 ions cm-2. XRD patterns of Ag ions implanted ZnO did not show significant change in crystallite size by increasing ions fluence from 1  ×  1011 ions cm-2 to 5  ×  1011 ions cm-2. However, with further increase of the ions fluence, the crystallite size was decreased. The band gap of Ag ions implanted ZnO indicated anomalous variations with increase of the ions fluence.

  10. Oxidation of GaAs substrates to enable β-Ga2O3 films for sensors and optoelectronic devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mao, Howard; Alhalaili, Badriyah; Kaya, Ahmet; Dryden, Daniel M.; Woodall, Jerry M.; Islam, M. Saif

    2017-08-01

    A very simple and inexpensive method for growing β-Ga2O3 films by heating GaAs wafers at high temperature in a furnace was found to contribute to large-area, high-quality β-Ga2O3 nanoscale thin films as well as nanowires depending on the growth conditions. We present the material characterization results including the optical band gap, Schottky barrier height with metal (gold), field ionization and photoconductance of β-Ga2O3 film and nanowires.

  11. Nb and Ta Co-Doped TiO2 Transparent Conductive Thin Films by Magnetron Sputtering: Fabrication, Structure, and Characteristics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Yang; Peng, Qian; Qiao, Yadong; Yang, Guang

    2018-06-01

    Nb and Ta co-doped anatase titanium dioxide (NTTO) nanocrystalline thin films were deposited on quartz and Si (100) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. The influence of RF power on the growth, structure, morphology, and properties of the samples are discussed in detail. X-ray diffraction measurements show that the films are polycrystalline with anatase tetragonal structure, which is further confirmed by Raman spectroscopy analysis. Meanwhile, Raman spectroscopy results indicate that the peak width of E g(1) mode, which is directly correlated to the carrier density, changes obviously with RF power. It is found that the substitution of Nb5+ and Ta5+ at Ti site is significantly improved with the increase of RF power from 150 W to 210 W. For the sample deposited at 210 W, the optical transmittance is above 82% in the visible range and the electrical resistivity is as low as 1.3 × 10-3 Ω cm with carrier density of 1.1 × 1021 cm-3 and Hall mobility of 4.5 cm2 V-1 s-1. The optical and electrical properties of NTTO thin films can be compared to those of Nb or Ta doped anatase TiO2. However, co-doping with Nb and Ta gives a possible platform to complement the limitations of each individual dopant.

  12. High efficiency thin-film GaAs solar cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stirn, R. J.

    1977-01-01

    Several oxidation techniques are discussed which have been found to increase the open circuit (V sub oc) of metal-GaAs Schottky barrier solar cells, the oxide chemistry, attempts to measure surface state parameters, the evolving characteristics of the solar cell as background contamination (has been decreased, but not eliminated), results of focused Nd/YAG laser beam recrystallization of Ge films evaporated onto tungsten, and studies of AMOS solar cells fabricated on sliced polycrystalline GaAs wafers. Also discussed are projected materials availability and costs for GaAs thin-film solar cells.

  13. Influence of Sn doping on structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films prepared by cost effective sol-gel process.

    PubMed

    Vishwas, M; Narasimha Rao, K; Arjuna Gowda, K V; Chakradhar, R P S

    2012-09-01

    Tin (Sn) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were synthesized by sol-gel spin coating method using zinc acetate di-hydrate and tin chloride di-hydrate as the precursor materials. The films were deposited on glass and silicon substrates and annealed at different temperatures in air ambient. The agglomeration of grains was observed by the addition of Sn in ZnO film with an average grain size of 60 nm. The optical properties of the films were studied using UV-VIS-NIR spectrophotometer. The optical band gap energies were estimated at different concentrations of Sn. The MOS capacitors were fabricated using Sn doped ZnO films. The capacitance-voltage (C-V), dissipation vs. voltage (D-V) and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics were studied and the electrical resistivity and dielectric constant were estimated. The porosity and surface area of the films were increased with the doping of Sn which makes these films suitable for opto-electronic applications. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Effect of Ag/Al co-doping method on optically p-type ZnO nanowires synthesized by hot-walled pulsed laser deposition

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Silver and aluminum-co-doped zinc oxide (SAZO) nanowires (NWs) of 1, 3, and 5 at.% were grown on sapphire substrates. Low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) was studied experimentally to investigate the p-type behavior observed by the exciton bound to a neutral acceptor (A0X). The A0X was not observed in the 1 at.% SAZO NWs by low-temperature PL because 1 at.% SAZO NWs do not have a Ag-O chemical bonding as confirmed by XPS measurement. The activation energies (Ea) of the A0X were calculated to be about 18.14 and 19.77 meV for 3 and 5 at.% SAZO NWs, respectively, which are lower than the activation energy of single Ag-doped NW which is about 25 meV. These results indicate that Ag/Al co-doping method is a good candidate to make optically p-type ZnO NWs. PMID:22647319

  15. P-type single-crystalline ZnO films obtained by (Na,N) dual implantation through dynamic annealing process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Zhiyuan; Huang, Jingyun; Chen, Shanshan; Pan, Xinhua; Chen, Lingxiang; Ye, Zhizhen

    2018-02-01

    Single-crystalline ZnO films were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy technique on c-plane sapphire substrates. The films have been implanted with fixed fluence of 130 keV Na and 90 keV N ions at 460 °C. It is observed that dually-implanted single crystalline ZnO films exhibit p-type characteristics with hole concentration in the range of 1.24 × 1016-1.34 × 1017 cm-3, hole mobilities between 0.65 and 8.37 cm2 V-1 s-1, and resistivities in the range of 53.3-80.7 Ω cm by Hall-effect measurements. There are no other secondary phase appearing, with (0 0 2) (c-plane) orientation after ion implantation as identified by the X-ray diffraction pattern. It is obtained that Na and N ions were successfully implanted and activated as acceptors measured by XPS and SIMS results. Also compared to other similar studies, lower amount of Na and N ions make p-type characteristics excellent as others deposited by traditional techniques. It is concluded that Na and N ion implantation and dynamic annealing are essential in forming p-type single-crystalline ZnO films.

  16. Subpicosecond luminescence rise time in magnesium codoped GAGG:Ce scintillator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tamulaitis, G.; Vaitkevičius, A.; Nargelas, S.; Augulis, R.; Gulbinas, V.; Bohacek, P.; Nikl, M.; Borisevich, A.; Fedorov, A.; Korjik, M.; Auffray, E.

    2017-10-01

    The influence of co-doping of Gd3Al2GA3O12:Ce (GAGG:Ce) scintillator with magnesium on the rise time of luminescence response was studied in two GAGG:Ce crystals grown in nominally identical conditions except of Mg co-doping in one of them. Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy and free carrier absorption techniques were exploited. It is evidenced that the Mg co-doping decreases the rise time down to sub-picosecond domain. Meanwhile, the light yield decreases by ∼20%. Thus, the feasibility of exploitation of the fast rise edge in luminescence response for ultrafast timing in scintillation detectors is demonstrated. The role of Mg impurities in facilitating the excitation transfer to radiative recombination centers is discussed.

  17. Effect of Fe incorporation on the optical behavior of ZnO thin films prepared by sol-gel derived spin coating techniques

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rakkesh, R. Ajay; Malathi, R.; Balakumar, S.

    2013-02-01

    In this work, Fe doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films were fabricated on the glass substrate by sol-gel derived spin coating technique. X-ray Diffraction studies revealed that the obtained pure and Fe doped ZnO thin films were in the wurtzite and spinel phase respectively. The three well defined Raman lines at 432, 543 and 1091 cm-1 also confirmed the lattice structure of the ZnO thin film has wurtzite symmetry. While doping Fe atoms in the ZnO, there was a significant change in the phase from wurtzite to spinel structure; owing to Fe (III) ions being incorporated into the lattice through substitution of Zn (II) ions. Room temperature PL spectra showed that the role of defect mediated red emissions at 612 nm was due to radial recombination of a photogenerated hole with an electron that belongs to the Fe atoms, which were discussed in detail.

  18. GaAs thin films and methods of making and using the same

    DOEpatents

    Boettcher, Shannon; Ritenour, Andrew; Boucher, Jason; Greenaway, Ann

    2016-06-14

    Disclosed herein are embodiments of methods for making GaAs thin films, such as photovoltaic GaAs thin films. The methods disclosed herein utilize sources, precursors, and reagents that do not produce (or require) toxic gas and that are readily available and relatively low in cost. In some embodiments, the methods are readily scalable for industrial applications and can provide GaAs thin films having properties that are at least comparable to or potentially superior to GaAs films obtained from conventional methods.

  19. Cu-Doped ZnO Thin Films Deposited by a Sol-Gel Process Using Two Copper Precursors: Gas-Sensing Performance in a Propane Atmosphere

    PubMed Central

    Gómez-Pozos, Heberto; Arredondo, Emma Julia Luna; Maldonado Álvarez, Arturo; Biswal, Rajesh; Kudriavtsev, Yuriy; Pérez, Jaime Vega; Casallas-Moreno, Yenny Lucero; Olvera Amador, María de la Luz

    2016-01-01

    A study on the propane gas-sensing properties of Cu-doped ZnO thin films is presented in this work. The films were deposited on glass substrates by sol-gel and dip coating methods, using zinc acetate as a zinc precursor, copper acetate and copper chloride as precursors for doping. For higher sensitivity values, two film thickness values are controlled by the six and eight dippings, whereas for doping, three dippings were used, irrespective of the Cu precursor. The film structure was analyzed by X-ray diffractometry, and the analysis of the surface morphology and film composition was made through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), respectively. The sensing properties of Cu-doped ZnO thin films were then characterized in a propane atmosphere, C3H8, at different concentration levels and different operation temperatures of 100, 200 and 300 °C. Cu-doped ZnO films doped with copper chloride presented the highest sensitivity of approximately 6 × 104, confirming a strong dependence on the dopant precursor type. The results obtained in this work show that the use of Cu as a dopant in ZnO films processed by sol-gel produces excellent catalysts for sensing C3H8 gas. PMID:28787885

  20. Cu-Doped ZnO Thin Films Deposited by a Sol-Gel Process Using Two Copper Precursors: Gas-Sensing Performance in a Propane Atmosphere.

    PubMed

    Gómez-Pozos, Heberto; Arredondo, Emma Julia Luna; Maldonado Álvarez, Arturo; Biswal, Rajesh; Kudriavtsev, Yuriy; Pérez, Jaime Vega; Casallas-Moreno, Yenny Lucero; Olvera Amador, María de la Luz

    2016-01-29

    A study on the propane gas-sensing properties of Cu-doped ZnO thin films is presented in this work. The films were deposited on glass substrates by sol-gel and dip coating methods, using zinc acetate as a zinc precursor, copper acetate and copper chloride as precursors for doping. For higher sensitivity values, two film thickness values are controlled by the six and eight dippings, whereas for doping, three dippings were used, irrespective of the Cu precursor. The film structure was analyzed by X-ray diffractometry, and the analysis of the surface morphology and film composition was made through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), respectively. The sensing properties of Cu-doped ZnO thin films were then characterized in a propane atmosphere, C₃H₈, at different concentration levels and different operation temperatures of 100, 200 and 300 °C. Cu-doped ZnO films doped with copper chloride presented the highest sensitivity of approximately 6 × 10⁴, confirming a strong dependence on the dopant precursor type. The results obtained in this work show that the use of Cu as a dopant in ZnO films processed by sol-gel produces excellent catalysts for sensing C₃H₈ gas.

  1. Friction and wear behavior of nitrogen-doped ZnO thin films deposited via MOCVD under dry contact

    DOE PAGES

    Mbamara, U. S.; Olofinjana, B.; Ajayi, O. O.; ...

    2016-02-01

    Most researches on doped ZnO thin films are tilted toward their applications in optoelectronics and semiconductor devices. Research on their tribological properties is still unfolding. In this work, nitrogen-doped ZnO thin films were deposited on 304 L stainless steel substrate from a combination of zinc acetate and ammonium acetate precursor by MOCVD technique. Compositional and structural studies of the films were done using Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The frictional behavior of the thin film coatings was evaluated using a ball-on-flat configuration in reciprocating sliding under dry contact condition. After friction test, the flat and ball counter-facemore » surfaces were examined to assess the wear dimension and failure mechanism. In conclusion, both friction behavior and wear (in the ball counter-face) were observed to be dependent on the crystallinity and thickness of the thin film coatings.« less

  2. Improvement in LPG sensing response by surface activation of ZnO thick films with Cr2O3

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hastir, Anita; Virpal, Kaur, Jasmeet; Singh, Gurpreet; Kohli, Nipin; Singh, Onkar; Singh, Ravi Chand

    2015-05-01

    Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) sensing response of pure and Cr2O3 activated ZnO has been investigated in this study. Zinc oxide was synthesized by co-precipitation route and deposited as a thick film on an alumina substrate. The surface of ZnO sensor was activated by chromium oxide on surface oxidation by chromium chloride. The concentration of chromium chloride solution used to activate the ZnO sensor surface has been varied from 0 to 5 %. It is observed that response to LPG has improved as compared to pure ZnO.

  3. Electrical and optical characteristics of n-Zno/p-GaN hetero-junction diode fabricated by ultra-high vacuum sputter.

    PubMed

    Cho, Seong Gook; Lee, Dong Uk; Kim, Eun Kyu

    2013-09-01

    We investigated the electrical and optical properties of n-ZnO/p-GaN hetero-junction diode fabricated by an ultra-high vacuum radio frequency magnetron sputter. A physical relationship between the rotation rate during deposition process and post annealing conditions after deposited ZnO layer on p-GaN layer was discussed. When the rotation rates during deposition process of n-ZnO layer were 5 rpm and 15 rpm, the full width at half maximum of photoluminescence spectra of ZnO layer on the p-GaN layer was about 106 and 133 meV, respectively. Also, the ratio of deep level emission to near band edge emission was dramatically increased as increasing the rotation rate from 5 to 15 rpm. The n-ZnO/p-GaN hetero-junction diode grown at 5 rpm has a higher ratio of forward to reverse currents than the diode grown at 15 rpm. Also, the 600 degrees C-annealed diodes with 5 rpm showed good rectifying behavior with the barrier height of 0.74 eV, the ideality factor of 12.2, and the forward to reverse current ratio of 614 at +/- 8 V.

  4. ZnO synthesized in air by fs laser irradiation on metallic Zn thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Esqueda-Barrón, Y.; Herrera, M.; Camacho-López, S.

    2018-05-01

    We present results on rapid femtosecond laser synthesis of nanostructured ZnO. We used metallic Zn thin films to laser scan along straight tracks, until forming nanostructured ZnO. The synthesis dependence on laser irradiation parameters such as the per pulse fluence, integrated fluence, laser scan speed, and number of scans were explored carefully. SEM characterization showed that the morphology of the obtained ZnO is dictated by the integrated fluence and the laser scan speed; micro Raman and XRD results allowed to identify optimal laser processing conditions for getting good quality ZnO; and cathodoluminescence measurements demonstrated that a single laser scan at high per pulse laser fluence, but a medium integrated laser fluence and a medium laser scan speed favors a low density of point-defects in the lattice. Electrical measurements showed a correlation between resistivity of the laser produced ZnO and point-defects created during the synthesis. Transmittance measurements showed that, the synthesized ZnO can reach down to the supporting fused silica substrate under the right laser irradiation conditions. The physical mechanism for the formation of ZnO, under ultrashort pulse laser irradiation, is discussed in view of the distinct times scales given by the laser pulse duration and the laser pulse repetition rate.

  5. Effects of hydrogen treatment on ohmic contacts to p-type GaN films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Bohr-Ran; Chou, Chia-Hui; Ke, Wen-Cheng; Chou, Yi-Lun; Tsai, Chia-Lung; Wu, Meng-chyi

    2011-06-01

    This study investigated the effects of hydrogen (H 2) treatment on metal contacts to Mg-doped p-GaN films by Hall-effect measurement, current-voltage ( I- V) analyzer and X-ray photoemission spectra (XPS). The interfacial oxide layer on the p-GaN surface was found to be the main reason for causing the nonlinear I- V behavior of the untreated p-GaN films. The increased nitrogen vacancy (V N) density due to increased GaN decomposition rate at high-temperature hydrogen treatment is believed to form high density surface states on the surface of p-GaN films. Compared to untreated p-GaN films, the surface Fermi level determined by the Ga 2p core-level peak on 1000 °C H 2-treated p-GaN films lies about ˜2.1 eV closer to the conduction band edge (i.e., the surface inverted to n-type behavior). The reduction in barrier height due to the high surface state density pinned the surface Fermi level close to the conduction band edge, and allowed the electrons to easily flow over the barrier from the metal into the p-GaN films. Thus, a good ohmic contact was achieved on the p-GaN films by the surface inversion method.

  6. Influence of oxygen partial pressure on the microstructural and magnetic properties of Er-doped ZnO thin films

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chen, Wei-Bin; Li, Fei; Chen, Hong-Ming

    2015-06-15

    Er-doped ZnO thin films have been prepared by using inductively coupled plasma enhanced physical vapor deposition at different O{sub 2}:Ar gas flow ratio (R = 0:30, 1:30, 1:15, 1:10 and 1:6). The influence of oxygen partial pressure on the structural, optical and magnetic properties was studied. It is found that an appropriate oxygen partial pressure (R=1:10) can produce the best crystalline quality with a maximum grain size. The internal strain, estimated by fitting the X-ray diffraction peaks, varied with oxygen partial pressure during growth. PL measurements show that plenty of defects, especially zinc vacancy, exist in Er-doped ZnO films. Allmore » the samples show room-temperature ferromagnetism. Importantly, the saturation magnetization exhibits similar dependency on oxygen partial pressure with the internal strain, which indicates that internal strain has an important effect on the magnetic properties of Er-doped ZnO thin films.« less

  7. Investigation of room temperature UV emission of ZnO films with different defect densities induced by laser irradiation.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Yan; Jiang, Yijian

    2010-08-01

    We studied the room temperature UV emission of ZnO films with different defect densities which is fabricated by KrF laser irradiation process. It is shown room temperature UV photoluminescence of ZnO film is composed of contribution from free-exciton (FX) recombination and its longitudinal-optical phonon replica (FX-LO) (1LO, 2LO). With increase of the defect density, the FX emission decreased and FX-LO emission increased dramatically; and the relative strengths of FX to FX-LO emission intensities determine the peak position and intensity of UV emission. What is more, laser irradiation with moderate energy density could induce the crystalline ZnO film with very flat and smooth surface. This investigation indicates that KrF laser irradiation could effectively modulate the exciton emission and surface morphology, which is important for the application of high performance of UV emitting optoelectronic devices. Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Synthesis and characterization of three-dimensional transition metal ions doped zinc oxide based dilute magnetic semiconductor thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samanta, Kousik

    Dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS), especially 3d-transition metal (TM) doped ZnO based DMS materials are the most promising candidates for optoelectronics and spintronics applications; e.g. in spin light emitting diode (SLED), spin transistors, and spin field effect transistors (SFET), etc. In the present dissertation, thin films of Zn1-xTMxO (TM = Co2+, Cu2+, and Mn2+) were grown on (0001) oriented Al2O3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The films were highly c-axis oriented, nearly single crystalline, and defects free for a limited concentration of the dilution of transition metal ions. In particular, we have obtained single crystalline phases of Zn1-xTMxO thin films for up to 10, 3, and 5 stoichiometric percentages of Co2+, Cu2+, and Mn2+ respectively. Raman micro-probe system was used to understand the structural and lattice dynamical properties at different physical conditions. The confinement of optical phonons in the disorder lattice was explained by alloy potential fluctuation (APF) using a spatial correlation (SC) model. The detailed analysis of the optical phonon behavior in disorder lattice confirmed the substitution of the transition metal ions in Zn 2+ site of the ZnO host lattice. The secondary phases of ZnCo 2O4, CuO, and ZnMn2O4 were detected in higher Co, Cu, and Mn doped ZnO thin films respectively; where as, XRD did not detect these secondary phases in the same samples. Room temperature ferromagnetism was observed in Co2+ and Cu2+ ions doped ZnO thin films with maximum saturation magnetization (Ms) of 1.0 and 0.76 muB respectively. The origin of the observed ferromagnetism in Zn1-xCoxO thin films was tested by the controlled introduction of shallow donors (Al) in Zn0.9-x Co0.1O:Alx (x = 0.005 and 0.01) thin films. The saturation magnetization for the 10% Co-doped ZnO (1.0 muB /Co) at 300K reduced (˜0.25 muB/Co) due to Al doping. The observed ferromagnetism and the reduction due to Al doping can be explained by the Bound

  9. Structure and Electronic Properties of Crystalline and Amorphous Zinc Indium Tin Oxide Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Proffit, Diana Elizabeth

    The local structures and surface electronic properties of crystalline (c-) and amorphous (a-) Zn and Sn codoped In2O3 (ZITO) films were studied. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) measurements confirm that Zn and Sn dopants occupy In sites in the bixbyite structure of c-ZITO. Also, Zn dopants are generally under-coordinated and some compensated Sn dopants are over-coordinated, as demonstrated by the trend in coordination numbers (CN) of CNSn>CNIn>CNZn. Aliovalent Sn dopants form Frank-Kostlin clusters, (2Sn•InO'' i)x , which can act as donors when reduced. XAS and anomalous X-ray scattering studies on a-ZITO show that the local structure in a-ZITO is somewhat different than that in c-ZITO, particularly around Zn. The Zn-O bond length is significantly smaller than in c-ZITO and Zn is 4-fold coordinated. The smaller coordination numbers in a-ZITO follow the same trend as in c-ZITO. Unlike in c-ZITO, variations in the Sn/Zn ratio do not alter the electrical properties of a-ZITO, although variations in deposition oxygen pressure do. The 3-D geometrical arrangement linking local structure units seems to play a key role in charge balancing ZITO. As measured by in situ grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering, ZITO crystallizes at a higher temperature than In2 O3 and Sn-doped In2O3. The difference is attributed to a higher activation energy, which may result from the unique structure around Zn in a-ZITO. Increasing the codoping level consistently increases crystallization temperature. For a given codoping level, the crystallization temperature during deposition is lower than that during post-deposition annealing. X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that a-ZITO and c-ZITO thin films have similar surface electronic properties. In situ a-ZITO and c-ZITO films have low ionization potentials that are similar to In2O3. However, dry-air-annealed in situ films, ex situ films, and bulk ceramics have higher ionization potentials that are

  10. Ti-doped ZnO Thin Films Prepared at Different Ambient Conditions: Electronic Structures and Magnetic Properties

    PubMed Central

    Yong, Zhihua; Liu, Tao; Uruga, Tomoya; Tanida, Hajime; Qi, Dongchen; Rusydi, Andrivo; Wee, Andrew T. S.

    2010-01-01

    We present a comprehensive study on Ti-doped ZnO thin films using X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. Ti K edge XAFS spectra were measured to study the electronic and chemical properties of Ti ions in the thin films grown under different ambient atmospheres. A strong dependence of Ti speciation, composition, and local structures upon the ambient conditions was observed. The XAFS results suggest a major tetrahedral coordination and a 4+ valence state. The sample grown in a mixture of 80% Ar and 20% O2 shows a portion of precipitates with higher coordination. A large distortion was observed by the Ti substitution in the ZnO lattice. Interestingly, the film prepared in 80% Ar, 20% O2 shows the largest saturation magnetic moment of 0.827 ± 0.013 µB/Ti.

  11. Mechanical properties of nanoporous GaN and its application for separation and transfer of GaN thin films.

    PubMed

    Huang, Shanjin; Zhang, Yu; Leung, Benjamin; Yuan, Ge; Wang, Gang; Jiang, Hao; Fan, Yingmin; Sun, Qian; Wang, Jianfeng; Xu, Ke; Han, Jung

    2013-11-13

    Nanoporous (NP) gallium nitride (GaN) as a new class of GaN material has many interesting properties that the conventional GaN material does not have. In this paper, we focus on the mechanical properties of NP GaN, and the detailed physical mechanism of porous GaN in the application of liftoff. A decrease in elastic modulus and hardness was identified in NP GaN compared to the conventional GaN film. The promising application of NP GaN as release layers in the mechanical liftoff of GaN thin films and devices was systematically studied. A phase diagram was generated to correlate the initial NP GaN profiles with the as-overgrown morphologies of the NP structures. The fracture toughness of the NP GaN release layer was studied in terms of the voided-space-ratio. It is shown that the transformed morphologies and fracture toughness of the NP GaN layer after overgrowth strongly depends on the initial porosity of NP GaN templates. The mechanical separation and transfer of a GaN film over a 2 in. wafer was demonstrated, which proves that this technique is useful in practical applications.

  12. One-dimensional pinning behavior in Co-doped BaFe2As2 thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mishev, V.; Seeböck, W.; Eisterer, M.; Iida, K.; Kurth, F.; Hänisch, J.; Reich, E.; Holzapfel, B.

    2013-12-01

    Angle-resolved transport measurements revealed that planar defects dominate flux pinning in the investigated Co-doped BaFe2As2 thin film. For any given field and temperature, the critical current depends only on the angle between the crystallographic c-axis and the applied magnetic field but not on the angle between the current and the field. The critical current is therefore limited only by the in-plane component of the Lorentz force but independent of the out-of-plane component, which is entirely balanced by the pinning force exerted by the planar defects. This one-dimensional pinning behavior shows similarities and differences to intrinsic pinning in layered superconductors.

  13. Development of Room Temperature Excitonic Lasing From ZnO and MgZnO Thin Film Based Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suja, Mohammad Zahir Uddin

    Room temperature excitonic lasing is demonstrated and developed by utilizing metal-semiconductor-metal devices based on ZnO and MgZnO materials. At first, Cu-doped p-type ZnO films are grown on c-sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Photoluminescence (PL) experiments reveal a shallow acceptor state at 0.15 eV above the valence band edge. Hall effect results indicate that a growth condition window is found for the formation of p-type ZnO thin films and the best conductivity is achieved with a high hole concentration of 1.54x1018 cm-3, a low resistivity of 0.6 O cm and a moderate mobility of 6.65 cm2 V -1 s-1 at room temperature. Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitor devices have been fabricated on the Cu-doped ZnO films and the characteristics of capacitance-voltage measurements demonstrate that the Cu-doped ZnO thin films under proper growth conditions are p-type. Seebeck measurements on these Cu-doped ZnO samples lead to positive Seebeck coefficients and further confirm the p-type conductivity. Other measurements such as XRD, XPS, Raman and absorption are also performed to elucidate the structural and optical characteristics of the Cu-doped p-type ZnO films. The p-type conductivity is explained to originate from Cu substitution of Zn with a valency of +1 state. However, all p-type samples are converted to n-type over time, which is mostly due to the carrier compensation from extrinsic defects of ZnO. To overcome the stability issue of p-type ZnO film, alternate devices other than p-n junction has been developed. Electrically driven plasmon-exciton coupled random lasing is demonstrated by incorporating Ag nanoparticles on Cu-doped ZnO metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) devices. Both photoluminescence and electroluminescence studies show that emission efficiencies have been enhanced significantly due to coupling between ZnO excitons and Ag surface plasmons. With the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles on ZnO MSM structures, internal quantum

  14. Fabrication of ZnO Thin Films by Sol-Gel Spin Coating and Their UV and White-Light Emission Properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, Mirgender; Dubey, Sarvesh; Rajendar, Vanga; Park, Si-Hyun

    2017-10-01

    ZnO thin films have been fabricated by the sol-gel spin-coating technique and annealed under different conditions, and their ultraviolet (UV) and white-light emission properties investigated. Different ambient conditions including oxygen, nitrogen, zinc-rich nitrogen, and vacuum were used to tune the main properties of the ZnO thin films. The resistivity varied from the conductive to semi-insulating regime, and the luminescence emission from fairly intense UV to polychromatic. The emission intensity was also found to be a function of the annealing conditions. Possible routes to compensate the loss of emission characteristics are discussed. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis was carried out to detect the chemical states of the zinc/oxygen species. The changes in the electrical and emission properties are explained based on annihilation/formation of inherent donor/acceptor-type defects. Such ZnO thin films could have potential applications in solid-state lighting.

  15. Improved electron injection in spin coated Alq3 incorporated ZnO thin film in the device for solution processed OLEDs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dasi, Gnyaneshwar; Ramarajan, R.; Thangaraju, Kuppusamy

    2018-04-01

    We deposit tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq3) incorporated zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films by spin coating method under the normal ambient. It showed the higher transmittance (90% at 550 nm) when compared to that (80% at 550 nm) of spin coated pure ZnO film. SEM studies show that the Alq3 incorporation in ZnO film also enhances the formation of small sized particles arranged in the network of wrinkles on the surface. XRD reveals the improved crystalline properties upon Alq3 inclusion. We fabricate the electron-only devices (EODs) with the structure of ITO/spin coated ZnO:Alq3 as ETL/Alq3 interlayer/LiF/Al. The device showed the higher electron current density of 2.75 mA/cm2 at 12V when compared to that (0.82 mA/cm2 at 12V) of the device using pure ZnO ETL. The device results show that it will be useful to fabricate the low-cost solution processed OLEDs for future lighting and display applications.

  16. Nonlinear absorption properties of ZnO and Al doped ZnO thin films under continuous and pulsed modes of operations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sandeep, K. M.; Bhat, Shreesha; Dharmaprakash, S. M.

    2018-06-01

    In the present investigation, we present the variations in nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of undoped and Al doped ZnO (AZO) films under two different off-resonant regimes using continuous and pulsed mode lasers. Z-scan open aperture experiment is performed to quantify nonlinear absorption constant and imaginary component of third order susceptibility. Reverse saturable absorption (RSA) and saturable absorption (SA) behaviors are noticed in both undoped and AZO films under pulsed mode and continuous wavelength (CW) regime respectively. The RSA and SA behavior observed in the films are attributed to two photon absorption (TPA) and thermal lensing properties respectively. The thermal lensing is assisted by the thermo-optic effects within the films due to the continuous illumination of the laser.

  17. Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance in Au Nanoparticles Embedded dc Sputtered ZnO Thin Films.

    PubMed

    Patra, Anuradha; Balasubrahmaniyam, M; Lahal, Ranjit; Malar, P; Osipowicz, T; Manivannan, A; Kasiviswanathan, S

    2015-02-01

    The plasmonic behavior of metallic nanoparticles is explicitly dependent on their shape, size and the surrounding dielectric space. This study encompasses the influence of ZnO matrix, morphology of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) and their organization on the optical behavior of ZnO/AuNPs-ZnO/ZnO/GP structures (GP: glass plate). These structures have been grown by a multiple-step physical process, which includes dc sputtering, thermal evaporation and thermal annealing. Different analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, glancing angle X-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and optical absorption have been used to study the structures. In-situ rapid thermal treatment during dc sputtering of ZnO film has been found to induce subtle changes in the morphology of AuNPs, thereby altering the profile of the plasmon band in the absorption spectra. The results have been contrasted with a recent study on the spectral response of dc magnetron sputtered ZnO films embedded with AuNPs. Initial simulation results indicate that AuNPs-ZnO/Au/GP structure reflects/absorbs UV and infrared radiations, and therefore can serve as window coatings.

  18. Field Effect Transistors Based on Composite Films of Poly(4-vinylphenol) with ZnO Nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Boughias, Ouiza; Belkaid, Mohammed Said; Zirmi, Rachid; Trigaud, Thierry; Ratier, Bernard; Ayoub, Nouh

    2018-04-01

    In order to adjust the characteristic of pentacene thin film transistor, we modified the dielectric properties of the gate insulator, poly(4-vinylphenol), or PVP. PVP is an organic polymer with a low dielectric constant, limiting the performance of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). To increase the dielectric constant of PVP, a controlled amount of ZnO nanoparticles was homogeneously dispersed in a dielectric layer. The effect of the concentration of ZnO on the relative permittivity of PVP was measured using impedance spectroscopy and it has been demonstrated that the permittivity increases from 3.6 to 5.5 with no percolation phenomenon even at a concentration of 50 vol.%. The performance of OTFTs in terms of charge carrier mobility, threshold voltage and linkage current was evaluated. The results indicate a dramatic increase in both the field effect mobility and the linkage current by a factor of 10. It has been demonstrated that the threshold voltage can be adjusted. It shifts from 8 to 0 when the volume concentration of ZnO varied from 0 vol.% to 50 vol.%.

  19. A flexible nonvolatile resistive switching memory device based on ZnO film fabricated on a foldable PET substrate.

    PubMed

    Sun, Bai; Zhang, Xuejiao; Zhou, Guangdong; Yu, Tian; Mao, Shuangsuo; Zhu, Shouhui; Zhao, Yong; Xia, Yudong

    2018-06-15

    In this work, a flexible resistive switching memory device based on ZnO film was fabricated using a foldable Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film as substrate while Ag and Ti acts top and bottom electrode. Our as-prepared device represents an outstanding nonvolatile memory behavior with good "write-read-erase-read" stability at room temperature. Finally, a physical model of Ag conductive filament is constructed to understanding the observed memory characteristics. The work provides a new way for the preparation of flexible memory devices based on ZnO films, and especially provides an experimental basis for the exploration of high-performance and portable nonvolatile resistance random memory (RRAM). Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Electric-field driven insulator-metal transition and tunable magnetoresistance in ZnO thin film

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Le; Chen, Shanshan; Chen, Xiangyang; Ye, Zhizhen; Zhu, Liping

    2018-04-01

    Electrical control of the multistate phase in semiconductors offers the promise of nonvolatile functionality in the future semiconductor spintronics. Here, by applying an external electric field, we have observed a gate-induced insulator-metal transition (MIT) with the temperature dependence of resistivity in ZnO thin films. Due to a high-density carrier accumulation, we have shown the ability to inverse change magnetoresistance in ZnO by ionic liquid gating from 10% to -2.5%. The evolution of photoluminescence under gate voltage was also consistent with the MIT, which is due to the reduction of dislocation. Our in-situ gate-controlled photoluminescence, insulator-metal transition, and the conversion of magnetoresistance open up opportunities in searching for quantum materials and ZnO based photoelectric devices.