Morphology controllable flower like nanostructures of Ag doped ZnO thin films and its application as photovoltaic material

•High-quality zinc oxide thin films with polycrystalline nature with (002) preferential orientation along the c-axis have been deposited onto glass substrates using spray technique.•The SEM study evidence of the films revealed the nano flowers shaped grains.•The increased carrier concentration and mobility indicates the semiconducting nature of the ZnO films.

Pure and silver doped ZnO thin films were successfully grown on glass substrates by spray pyrolysis technique. The effect of Ag doping different concentration (2, 4, 6 and 8 at.%) on the structural, surface morphological, electrical and optical properties of Ag:ZnO thin films were investigated by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS), photoluminescence (PL) and Hall effect measurement respectively. The X-ray pattern results confirmed that the Ag:ZnO thin films were polycrystalline nature with the preferential orientation along (002) plane in wurtzite structure. The SEM image revealed that the surface morphology of the films nano flower shaped grains with Ag doping. The compositional analysis by EDS confirms the presence of Zn, O and Ag. The surface roughness of the films decreases with increase of silver doping concentration was investigated by Atomic force microscopy (AFM). Optical transmittance 85% and a minimum resistivity of 1.23 × 10−3 Ω cm, are achieved for films when Ag doped ZnO with 6 at.% and confirm that these films are suitable for transparent conductive oxide (TCO) applications.

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