Influence of Sn Low Doping on the Morphological, Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Films Deposited by Sol Gel Dip-Coating

Abstract

In this work, Undoped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Sn-doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO:Sn) films have been deposited by sol-gel dip coating method, where the Sn/Zn atomic ratio was 3% and 5% in the solution. The effects of Sn incorporation on morphological, structural and optical properties of ZnO films were investigated. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed that the morphological surface of the films was affected by Sn low doping. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that all films have polycrystalline structures, and the doping incorporation has not lead to substantial changes in the structural characteristics of ZnO films. The crystallite size was calculated using the well-known Scherrer's formula and found to be in the range of 23 -40 nm. The measurements from UV-Visible Spectrophotometer (U-Vis) indicated that the highest average optical transmittance in the visible region was related to Undoped ZnO film, then the optical band gap and Urbach energy values of thin films were calculated. The X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) has demonstrated that Sn is incorporated in ZnO lattice.

Fabrication and Characterization of Highly Textured Thin Films of Undoped and Ag-Doped ZnO

“…The wrinkles-like formations are thinner in the case of ZnO thin film doped with 3 wt% Ag. This morphology is similar to that observed by Rahal et al [29] and Zegadi et al [39], for ZnO thin films prepared by colloidal and sol-gel synthesis methods, respectively. Figure 6 shows the three-dimensional images of AFM of prepared ZnO thin films.…”

XPS and DFT study of Sn incorporation into ZnO and TiO2host matrices by pulsed ion implantation

“…As an alternative, Sn 2+ →Zn 2+ isovalent substitution has also been reported and proved with the help of X‐ray diffraction and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques (see Refs. ). Neither of these competing models invokes reconstructive conversion of the host matrix structure after doping.…”

Optical Properties of Nano–Structured ZnO : Sn Powders Prepared in a Micro Drop Fluidized Reactor

“…This is due to the dopant acting as a defect in the host lattice, which suppresses the crystal growth in the lattice of ZnO. A similar trend was also observed in preparing ZnO : Sn film (Zegadi et al, 2014). In addition, the electronegativity around the Zn 2+ ions could decrease but the ionic strength of cation increases by replacing some Zn 2+ by Sn 4+ ions, which leads to the decrease in the crystallite size with increasing Sn 4+ content (Jia et al, 2010;Li et al, 2010).…”

“…Figure 5 shows the DRS analysis of ZnO : Sn powders. The spectra, which were transformed to absorbance intensity through the Kubela-Munk method, indicated that the doping of Sn 4+ into ZnO extended the absorption band to longer wavelength, as observed in preparing ZnO : Sn film (Zegadi et al, 2014;Aydin et al, 2015). The extension increased with increasing Sn 4+ ions.…”