Characterization of ZnO:Si nanocomposite films grown by thermal evaporation

Composite films were fabricated by co-evaporating Zinc Oxide with Silicon at room temperatures. The resulting films had polycrystalline grains of Zinc Oxide whose grain size were few hundred nanometers, embedded in the silicon matrix. These nanocrystalline grains of ZnO showed good photoluminescence emission at 520 nm along with a photoluminescence emission at 620 nm being contributed by the silicon background. Thus, the nanocomposite films gave a board emission, making it a potentially useful candidate for optoelectronic devices. The photo-luminescent property of the films was found to be stable since the homgenously dispersed ZnO nanocrystals were not allowed to agglomerate by the silicon background.