Optical characterization of sol-gel ZnO:Al thin films

This work presents a sol-gel approach for ZnO:Al films deposition. The effect of Al component and annealing treatments (from 500 to 800 °C) on the film structural and optical properties has been studied. Sol-gel ZnO and Al2O3 films are used for comparative analyses. Structural evolution as a function of annealing temperatures is investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD analysis of ZnO:Al films revealed that the predominant crystal phase is a wurtzite ZnO. It can be seen that the addition of Al leads to decaying of the film crystallinity. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and UV-VIS spectrophotometry are applied for characterization of the vibrational and optical properties. The Al component influences the shapes of the absorption bands. The optical properties of the sol-gel ZnO, ZnO:Al and Al2O3 films reveal very interesting features. Increasing Al component results in significantly higher film transparency.