No abstract

Undoped and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films are prepared by the sol-gel process. Zinc acetate dihydrate, ethanol, and monoethanolamine are used as precursor, solvent, and stabilizer, respectively. In the case of AZO, aluminum nitrate nonahydrate is added to the precursor solution with an atomic percentage equal to 1 and 2 at.% Al. The multi thin layers are deposited by spin-coating onto glass substrates, and are transformed into ZnO upon annealing at 550 °C. Films display a strong preferential orientation, with high values for the Texture Coefficients (TC) of the (002) direction (TC (002) ≈ 3). The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the thin films as a function of aluminum content have been investigated using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM). Waveguiding properties of the thin films have been also studied using m-lines spectroscopy. The results indicate that the films are monomodes at 632.8 nm with optical propagation optical losses estimated around 1.6 decibel per cm (dB/cm).

A sol-gel dip-coating process was used to deposit almost stress-free highlyc-axis oriented zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films onto glass substrates. The effects of low silver doping concentration (Ag/Zn < 1%) on the structural, morphological, optical, and waveguide properties of such films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy, UV-Visible spectrophotometry, and M-lines spectroscopy (MLS). XRD analysis revealed that all the films were in single phase and had a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The grain size values were calculated and found to be about 24–29 nm. SEM micrographs and AFM images have shown that film morphology and surface roughness were influenced by Ag doping concentration. According to UV-Vis. measurements all the films were highly transparent with average visible transmission values ranging from 80% to 86%. It was found that the Ag contents lead to widening of the band gap. MLS measurements at 632.8 nm wavelength put into evidence that all thin film planar waveguides demonstrate a well-guided fundamental mode for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarized light. Moreover, the refractive index of ZnO thin films was found to increase by Ag doping levels.

Undoped and aluminum-doped ZnO thin films are prepared by the sol-gel process. Zinc acetate dihydrate, ethanol and monoethanolamine are used as precursor, solvent and stabilizer, respectively. In the case of Al-doped ZnO, aluminum nitrate nonahydrate is added to the precursor solution with an atomic percentage equal to 1 or 2 at.% Al. The multi thin layers are prepared by spin-coating onto glass substrates, and are transformed into ZnO upon annealing at 550• C. Films with preferential orientation along the c-axis are successfully obtained. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the thin films as a function of aluminum content have been investigated for different elaboration parameters (e.g. layer number) using X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, scanning electronic microscopy. Waveguiding properties of the thin films have been also studied using m-lines spectroscopy. The results indicate that our films are monomodes at 632.8 nm with propagation optical loss estimated around 1.6 dB/cm.