Structural properties of pure and Sn doped ZnO thin film prepared using sol-gel method

Abstract

In this work, the pure ZnO and Sn doped ZnO thin films with different volume ratios (2, 4, 6, and 8V/V) of tin chloride have been successfully prepared by using sol-gel method. The structural properties were investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), and Atomic force microscope (AFM). The results showed that, pure ZnO and Sn doped ZnO thin films have polycrystalline in nature with hexagonal structure. The structure have different plane at (1 1 1),(0 0 2),(1 0 1),(1 0 2),(1 1 0),(1 0 3),(1 1 2) belong to 2θ of 31.64, 34.30,36.13, 47.43, 56.49, 62.73, 67.83 respectively. The orientation of (002) at 2θ = 34.30 has a narrow FWHM, low strain, and crystalline size equal to 4.913, 3.683, 3.686, 2.455, and4.911 respectively for pure, Sn doped ZnO. Particle shapes were spherical granules morphology for all samples. The AFM images showed that the size of the grains on the surface of thin films increases with the increase in the concentration of impurity which agreement with the SEM results.

Impact of Sn-doping on the optoelectronic properties of zinc oxide crystal: DFT approach

“…To improve its electrical characteristics, ZnO is typically doped with a few carefully chosen elements. Numerous investigations have found that the electrical and optical properties of ZnO thin films can be enhanced by doping with elements from group III (Al, Ga, In) [5,14,15], group IV (Sn) [16][17][18][19] and group II (Mg) [20]. The Sn atom which is Group IV element, is often regarded as one of the suitable dopants since for substitution and interstitial doping [5,21,22] of ZnO, since it has atomic radius comparable to Zn atom [8,22].…”