Effect of Au Dopant on the Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Thin Films Prepared by CVD

Authors S.A. Najim1 , N.Y. Jamil1, K.M. Muhammed2
Affiliations

1Mosul University, Mosul, Iraq

2Sumy State University, 2, Rimsky-Korsakov St., 40007 Sumy, Ukraine

Е-mail
Issue Volume 11, Year 2019, Number 2
Dates Received 08 January 2019; revised manuscript received 07 April 2019; published online 15 April 2019
Citation S.A. Najim, N.Y. Jamil, K.M. Muhammed, J. Nano- Electron. Phys. 11 No 2, 02003 (2019)
DOI https://doi.org/10.21272/jnep.11(2).02003
PACS Number(s) 78.66.Hf, 78.66.Bz
Keywords II-VI compounds, Transparent oxide compound, Semiconductor thin films.
Annotation

Thin zinc oxide films doped with Au have been synthesized by CVD technique. Increase in the dopant from 0 to 15wt.% Au in ZnO thin films led to pronounced changes in the film morphology. It follows from the optical properties that the band gap of pure ZnO thin film is 3.28 eV, and with increasing Au dopant from 5 to 15wt.% it does not change. X-ray diffraction has shown that the peak of the maximum intensity corresponds to the preferred orientation (101) for ZnO films at 15 wt. % Au. SEM images show that crystal growth is due to an increase in the dopant concentration. EDX analysis showed that the undoped ZnO film contains Zn and O elements, and the film doped with 15 wt. % Au in addition to the Zn and O elements contains Au and Cu elements. All diffraction peaks can be attributed to crystalline ZnO with a hexagonal structure. In addition to these peaks, two new peaks (111) and (200) appear due to gold. Study of the morphology of ZnO films indicates the presence of homogeneous grains, while when Au atoms are added, the grains are not homogeneous and have different sizes. EDX analysis for pure ZnO shows two strong peaks corresponding to Zn and O, which confirm the high purity of ZnO thin films. And in doped thin films (15 wt. % Au), the appearance of high-intensity Au element, as well as the two strong peaks corresponding to the Cu and Zn elements, and the presence of low-intensity peaks due to the Au, Cu and Zn elements, are observed.

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