PROPERTIES OF ZnO THIN FILMS

TEAMMATES:

(1) G.ROHITH KUMAR - 18BEC0097

(2) Sk.SUHIL IRSHAD - 18BEC2007
(3) SHREY BHIWAPURKAR - 18BEC0330
(4) K.DUSHYANTH REDDY - 18BEC0253

INTRODUCTION:

Zinc oxide has a wide range of applications.It is used as

the key material in fabrication of LEDs,cathode ray tubes,gas sensors an so
on...It has conductive nature and has some optical properites so that it is
used in manufacturing of solar cells.

(1) To deposit the ZnO thin films we use chemical

bath deposition technique most widely.This method can also be used to
obtain thin films with contolable structural properties such as
nanocrystalline layers, nanowires and nanobelts.We can obtain ZnO thin
films from solutions like zinc nitrate,hexa methylene tetra
amine(HMTA),HMTA and ammonia solution,ethylene diamine and
triethanolamine solutions.We use
ZnSO4 and CS(NH)4.

ZnO has high excition binding energy which is

around 60eV.This property makes it very useful in manufacturing the many
electronic devices.Usually the electronic and optical properties of these thin
films depends on deposition conditions.

(2) In this present study we considered

spray-pyrolysis Method of preparation of ZnO thin films to estimate the
structural and optical properties of thin films.Generally these properties
depends on deposition conditions.Due to it’s wide band gap we use it as UV
photo detector.
 (3) We use ZnO thin films in many numerous
ways.Thin film solar cells need a transparent window electrode for
extraction of photo current and light transmission.Highly doped ZnO thin
films are used especially in amorphous silicon and Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 cells.For
amorphous silicon cells the degeneratley n-doped transparent electrode
forms a tunnel junction to a highly n or p doped material.

In Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 cells ZnO is a part of electric p or n

junction.To obtain higher efficiencies a bi layer structure of thin approx.
50nm nominally undoped ZnO and a highly n-doped layer is used.

Here the main advantage of using ZnO is it is much

cheaper than Indium oxide and Indium oxide is much more toxic than ZnO
thin films.

In this experiment The spray solution used is prepared

by dissolving zinc acetate dehydrate in a mixture of deionized water and
methanol.The substrate was lime glass which was regularly heated up to
the requires temperature,before being sprayed.

STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES:
ZnO thin films have a uniform density and composed of
Randomly oriented flake like grains.The grains are smaller and more
elongated in ZnO thin films prepared with lower precursor concentration.
The grain size increases and the shape of the grains become round and
hexagonal with increasing precursor concentration.There are two clearly
different crystallite size distributions.

To study effect of precursor concentration on structural

Properties of ZnO thin films the XRD analysis is done on the samples.The
results are that all the sprayed films are polycrystalline with hexgonal
wurtzite structure.
It is revealed that all sprayed films have a preferred
growth orientation along c-axis i.e.,(002) plane.The XRD patterns show
diffraction peaks at (002), (101), (102) and (103) for all ZnO films.
ZnO usually grows along c-axis because the (001) basal plane of ZnO has the
lowest surface energy. The intensity of (002) peak is increased as the
precursor concentration is increased to 0.4 M. However, in the precursor
concentration of 0.3 M, the intensity of (002) diffraction peak decreased in
XRD pattern that it can be due to decreasing of film thickness in 0.3 M than
0.2 and 0.4 M.
 The XRD patterns of ZnO thin films with different concentrations

OPTICAL PROPERTIES:

Optical transmissionof ZnO films with different concentrations

The above figure shows the transmission spectrum of
sprayed ZnO films with different precursor concentration in the spectral
range of 300–800 nm. As seen, all of the films are transparent in visible
region, but their UV transmission is low and there is an absorption edge
around 380 nm due to bandgap absorption. The transmission spectra of
ZnO films show that the transmission decreases with increase in precursor
concentration. It can be due to more Zn ion in higher precursor molarity
resulting in thicker and consequently, less transparent films.This decreased
transmission can be due to increase in roughness with increase in precursor
concentration that result in more scattering and therefore decrease in
transmission. The maximum transmission is about 95% in visible region for
sprayed film with 0.1 M and it decreases to 75% for 0.4 M.

The transmission of ZnO films with different

concentrations is higher than transmission of ZnO films with corresponding
concentration in our previous work. It may be due to the effect of precursor
nature including the effect of the salt used in precursor, so that ZnO films
with smoother surface morphology and less grain boundary and therefore,
more transparent are grown by zinc acetate dehydrate solution than zinc
chloride solution.In order to estimate bandgap, we plotted (αhν) 2 vs hν ,
where α and hν are optical absorption coefficient and incident photon
energy, respectively.

RESEARCH PAPERS:

(1)By Linhua Xu, Xiangyin Li , Yulin Chen , Fei Xu on structural and optical
properties(website - science direct)
 By R Ayouchi , F Martin , D Leinen , J.R.Ramos-Barrado on growth of pure
(2)
ZnO thin films by spray pyrolysis (website - science direct)

(3) By Ziaul Raza Khan , Mohd Shoeb Khan , Mohammad Zulfequar , Mohd
Shahid Khan on optical properties(website - citeseerx)
The average value of transmittance of thin films in the visible range is found to
be 91% - 95%. In the visible region of solar spectrum, transmission spectra of
ZnO thin films show sinusoidal behaviour; this may be due to the layered
structure of thin films. The value of band gap is estimated from fundamental
absorption edge of the films.
The presence of a single slope in the plot suggests that the films have direct and
allowed transition. The band gap energy is obtained by extrapolating the straight
line portion of the plot to zero absorption coefficient. The band gap value of ZnO
thin film is found to be 3.24 eV.
The absorption coefficient of ZnO thin films is found to be zero in forbidden
energy region and it is found to increase rapidly with the decrease in wavelength
beyond energy band gap. Zero absorption coefficients of ZnO thin films in the
visible range of spectrum make these thin films suitable as window layer in solar
cells.

(4)By Said Benramache , Boubaker Benhaoua on influence of annealing

temperature on structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films(website-
science direct)
(5)By T.Prasad Rao , M.C.Santhosh kumar on effect of thickness on structral
and optical properties of ZnO thin films by spray pyrolysis(website - science
direct)

(6)By T.Prasad rao , M.C.Santhosh kumar , A.Safarulla , V.Ganesan ,

S.R.Barman , C.Sanjeeviraja on physical properties of ZnO thi films deposited
at various substrate temperatures using spray pyrolysis.(website - science
direct)

S.NO REFERENCE IDEA CONCLUSION

1. The method and chemicals used to It is done by chemical
synthesize the ZnO thin films. bath deposition
technique,and
HMTA,ZnSO4,CS(NH)4..
chemicals.
2. The method we used in this study. Spray pyrolysis method
3. Applications of ZnO thin films in Used in silicon cells,ZnO
different ways. is much cheaper than
other thin films.