Effects of crystallization on the optical properties of ZnO nano-pillar thin films by sol-gel method

ZnO nano-pillars were prepared on the silica glass by the sol-gel method. The films were crystallized at various crystallized temperatures (600 °C, 650 °C and 700 °C) for 1 h under a pure oxygen atmosphere. The ZnO films had hexagonal structures and preferred a c-axis orientation of (002). Due to th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current applied physics 2011, 11(5), , pp.1243-1248
Main Authors: Chen, K.J., Hung, F.Y., Chang, S.J., Young, S.J., Hu, Z.S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystallization
Diffusion
glass
indium
Nano-pillar
Nanocomposites
Nanomaterials
Nanostructure
optical properties
oxygen
silica
Sol gel process
Sol-gel
sol-gel processing
temperature
Thin films
zinc
Zinc oxide
ZnO
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Summary:ZnO nano-pillars were prepared on the silica glass by the sol-gel method. The films were crystallized at various crystallized temperatures (600 °C, 650 °C and 700 °C) for 1 h under a pure oxygen atmosphere. The ZnO films had hexagonal structures and preferred a c-axis orientation of (002). Due to the diffused zinc atoms recombining with oxygen atoms at higher temperatures (≥650 °C), the ZnO nano-pillars grew continually from the ZnO grains or the ZnO grain boundaries. When increasing the crystallizing temperature, the quality of ZnO crystallization not only improved, but the ZnO nano-pillars also grew significantly and their length was around 30–150 nm. Notably, a severe decomposition reaction reduced the total volume of crystallization matrix (residual ZnO thin films and increased ZnO nano-pillars). The nano-pillar-thin film of 650 °C not only possessed a better crystallization, but also had the efficacy of nano-pillars that enhanced the optical characteristics. In addition, 5 at.% indium-doped ZnO was also synthesized and then compared with un-doped ZnO to clarify the contribution of indium dopants. ► We use sol-gel method without any catalyst to grow ZnO nano-pillars. ► Meanwhile, the growth mechanism of sol-gel synthesized ZnO nano-pillars was created and studied. ► Although both density and length of nano-pillar would deteriorate the photoluminescence after indium doped. ► But, the film conductivity could be enhanced by a few indium dopants.
ISSN:1567-1739
1878-1675
DOI:10.1016/j.cap.2011.03.033