UV-irradiated sol-gel spin coated AZO thin films: enhanced optoelectronic properties

Abstract

Thin films of transparent conductive Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were produced via sol-gel spin coating route. Structural, optical, and electrical properties were explored for several dopant concentrations. Formation of crystalline AZO was verified by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) Analysis and structural analysis were carried out later from the XRD data. Highest band gap of 3.67 eV was found for 2 mol % AZO thin films. The average transmittance was found to be 84.19% in the visible spectra for the corresponding thin films. 2 mol% AZO also exhibited a minimum resistivity of 2.05 Ω-cm with a maximum value of figure of merit. Prolonged UV irradiation was applied to 2 mol % AZO thin films prior to annealing. It significantly modified the surface morphology of the film and provided shielding near UVA (315-378 nm) spectrum. This also enhanced the conductivity of the thin film by 3fold compared to non-UV treated sample and decreased optical band gap significantly.

Effect of sputtering power and substrate temperature on structural, optical, wettability and anti-icing characteristics of aluminium doped zinc oxide

“…One of the most promising alternatives to indium tin oxide (ITO) is zinc oxide (ZnO) since the elements are easily available and that are also safe and reliable throughout the process of designing. Pulsed laser deposition [2], atomic layer depsoiton [3], magnetron sputtering [4,5], chemical vapour deposition [6], sol-gel dip coating [7] and sol-gel spin coating [8] are only some of the methods that can be used to synthesize it. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an n-type semiconductor with a broad direct band gap (3.37 eV) in the near-UV spectral region and great chemical stability; nevertheless, its high resistivity prevents it from being widely used in thermochromic elements (TCEs).…”

Interfacial Engineering of a PCBM/AZO Electron Transport Bilayer for Efficient and Stable Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells

“…The 2θ peaks at 31.53°, 34.22°, 36.03°, 47.34°, 56.43°, 62.65°, 66.34°, 67.73°, and 68.88° are assigned to crystallographic planes of (100), (002), (101), (102), (110), (103), (200), (112) and (201) hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO, respectively (JCPDS Card No. 80‐0075) [32] . Initially, the crystallinity of XRD peaks is increased Al doping up to AZO‐2.…”

“…80-0075). [32] Initially, the crystallinity of XRD peaks is increased Al doping up to AZO-2. The highest crystallinity was obtained with AZO-2.…”

Effect of Al Incorporation on the Structural and Optical Properties of Sol–Gel AZO Thin Films

“…Many studies feature the Al-doped ZnO thin films (AZO) as an efficient alternative to ITO films due to their facile preparation and the low cost of the raw materials [30][31][32]. AZO films can be manufactured by different deposition methods such as sol-gel [30,[33][34][35], spray pyrolysis [27], chemical bath deposition [36], RF sputtering [37,38], atomic layer [39] and pulsed laser deposition [40]. The sol-gel synthesis displays a series of advantages such as cost effectiveness, ease of preparation, stoichiometry, homogeneity, viscosity and thickness control, lower working temperatures and the use of a higher concentration of dopant [41].…”

“…The sol-gel synthesis displays a series of advantages such as cost effectiveness, ease of preparation, stoichiometry, homogeneity, viscosity and thickness control, lower working temperatures and the use of a higher concentration of dopant [41]. AZO-based materials have been investigated in different fields, having applicability as a transparent conductive layer for flexible (polymer dispersed-liquid crystals) or rigid (liquid crystals) display devices [42], optoelectronics [35], thin film transistors [43], solar cells [44,45], oxygen [46], glucose [47], humidity [48] and UV sensors [49,50]. Additionally, the AZO films were also investigated toward the PL properties at room temperature [29,31,[51][52][53][54][55][56].…”