Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) ›› 2015, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (8): 1041-1046.DOI: 10.1007/s40195-015-0292-y

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Tuning the Structural and Optical Properties of SILAR-Deposited Cu2O Films Through Zn Doping

A. T. Ravichandran1, K. Dhanabalan1,2, K. Ravichandran3(), R. Mohan3, K. Karthika3, A. Vasuhi4, B. Muralidharan5   

  1. 1.Department of Physics, National College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
    2.Department of Physics, J. J. College of Arts and Science (Autonomous), Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, India
    3.Department of Physics, AVVM Sri Pushpam College (Autonomous), Poondi, Thanjavur, 613 503, India
    4.Department of Physics, H. H. The Rajah’s College (Autonomous), Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, India
    5.Department of Chemistry, BITS-PILANI-Dubai Campus, Dubai International Academic City, Dubai, UAE;
  • Received:2015-06-27 Revised:2015-06-27 Online:2015-06-27 Published:2015-08-20

Abstract:

Undoped and Zn-doped Cu2O films were deposited onto glass substrates using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) technique with different Zn doping levels (0, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 wt%). The structural, optical, and surface morphological studies were carried out and reported. The structural study revealed that the crystalline quality is gradually enhanced up to 5 wt% of Zn doping level, and then quality begins to degrade for further increase in doping level. Moreover, the preferential orientation changes from (111) to (110) for the highest doping level were examined. Optical study shows that the transmittance (65%) and optical band gap values are maximum (2.41 eV) when the Zn doping level is at 5 wt%. The photoluminescence study confirms the presence of various defects in the Cu2O matrix and also the variation obtained in the optical band gap from the transmittance data. SEM images revealed the annealing-induced changes in the surface morphology of the films.

Key words: Cu2O thin films, Structural properties, Zener pinning effect, Optical properties, SEM