Fabrication of fluorine and silver co-doped ZnO photodetector using modified hydrothermal method

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to dope silver (Ag) and fluorine (F) in zinc oxide (ZnO) for the enhancement of electrical and optical properties of ZnO, as previous studies reported the improvement of these properties using individual doping of F and Ag. In this paper, F and Ag co-doped ZnO nanorods were synthesized using a modified hydrothermal method. Design/methodology/approach The hydrothermal method was modified and used for the synthesis of the doped ZnO nanostructures, where stainless autoclave and oven were replaced with the Duran laboratory bottle and water boiler system in the process. The ultraviolet metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector (PD) was fabricated using DC sputtering method. Findings Vertically aligned nanorods images were captured from field emission scanning electron microscopy. XPS analysis confirmed greater spin-orbital interaction in the F and Ag co-doped ZnO sample and revealed the presence of F, Ag, Zn and O in the samples, indicating a successful doping process. X-ray diffraction revealed a hexagonal wurtzite structure with enhanced crystal quality upon co-doping. The bandgap decreased from 3.19 to 3.14 eV upon co-doping because of reduced defects density in the sample. Finally, an ultra-violet PD was fabricated with enhanced sensitivity and response times upon co-doping. Originality/value The low-cost, less energy-consuming Duran laboratory bottle and water boiler system were used as the substitute of expensive, more energy-consuming stainless autoclave and oven in a hydrothermal method for synthesis of F and Ag co-doped ZnO and subsequent fabrication of PD.

Characterization and Growth of TiO2/ZnO on PTFE Substrates at Different Volumetric Ratios Using Chemical Bath Deposition

“…The open-beaker system technique is typically a long-duration process in which the system is subjected to temperature changes over long periods of time, which may cause the nanostructure to change and result in a poorly adapted processing framework that is not well suited to the subjected synthesis process [15][16][17]. Recently, the low-cost, less energy-consuming (thermodynamically closed system) Duran laboratory bottle has been utilized as an alternative to the open beaker for CBD processes [18]. Moreover, several materials have been used as substrates in the CBD process, such as glass, p-type silicon, and n-type silicon [19][20][21][22].…”

Various Applications of ZnO Thin Films Obtained by Chemical Routes in the Last Decade

“…Thus, undoped ZnO shows n-type conductivity due to intrinsic defects such as interstitial Zn and oxygen vacancies. By doping and co-doping, p-type ZnO can be obtained through three fundamental approaches: (a) replacing Zn with the group I and IB elements (Li, Na, K, Ag, Cu), (b) by doping with group V elements (N, P, As, Sb) which replace oxygen in the lattice or (c) co-doping with donors and acceptors (Li-Ni, In-N, Al-N, F-Ag) [ 193 , 194 , 195 ]. In recent years, group I elements have been reported to possess better dopant behavior than group V or group III elements in terms of acceptor, and donor level, respectively [ 196 , 197 ].…”

“…Li [197,[199][200][201][202][203] F [204,209,214] Te [206,207] Li-Ni [199] Na [192,197,204,205] Cl [214] Ga [214,215] Ga-N [213] K [197] Al [216,217] Ni [199,208,217] In-N [203] N [193,194,212] In [196] Mn [218] Al-N [210] P [194] S [206] F-Ag [195] Sn [215] Se [206]…”

Fabrication of UV ZnO NRS photodetector based on seeded silicon substrate via the drop-casting technique

“…The photosensitivity ( S ), which was defined as the performance of the fabricated device, can be calculated by using the following equation (Mohammad et al , 2021; Muhammad, 2022): …”