Interna tional Jo urna l o f Applied Research 2016 ; 2 (4 ): 726 -72 9
ISSN Print: 2394-7500
ISSN Online: 2394-5869
Impact Factor: 5.2
IJAR 2016; 2(4): 726-729
www.allresearchjournal.com
Received: 22-02-2016
Accepted: 23-03-22016
Maysar A Salim
Department of Energy
Engineering, College of
Engineering, University of
Baghdad, Baghdad, IRAQ.
Effect of thickness on the optical properties of ZnO
thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition
technique (PLD)
Maysar A Salim
Abstract
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films of different thickness were prepared on ultrasonically cleaned corning
glass substrate, by pulsed laser deposition technique (PLD) at room temperature, since most application
of ZnO thin film are certainly related to its optical properties, so the optical properties of ZnO thin film
in the wavelength range (300-1100) nm were studied, it was observed that all ZnO films have high
transmittance ( 80%) in the wavelength region (400-1100)nm and it increase as the film thickness
increase, using the optical transmittance to calculate optical energy gap (Egopt) show that (Egopt) of a
direct allowed transition (~3.2ev) and it increase slightly as the film thickness increase, so Zn0thin
films were used as a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) in various optoelectronic application such as
a window in a thin film solar cells.
Keywords: ZnO, thin films, PLD, optical properties
Correspondence
Maysar A. salim
Department of Energy
Engineering, College of
Engineering, University of
Baghdad, Baghdad, IRAQ.
1. Introduction
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) a (II IV) semiconductor compound is one of the transparent conducting
material (TCO), it has a direct band gap of (3.37 ev) at room temperature. that is suitable for
short wavelength optoelectronic application [15] undoped ZnO is usually n- type
semiconductor, which may be due to the presence of nature point defects such as oxygen
vacancies and interstitial Zinc [6, 7], a polycrystalline ZnO thin films attract much interest
because of their unique optical and electrical properties, such as high optical transparency in
visible and infrared wavelength, high electron mobility, high chemical and mechanical
stability in hydrogen plasma, in addition to its low cost and nontoxicity [8, 9], for those
properties various applications in electronic and optoelectronic device such as a window in
thin film solar cells [anti reflecting coating and transparing conducting material], transparent
electrode in liquid crystal display (LCD),photodetector, short wavelength light emitting
diode [LED], heat protecting window, magnetic memories, and surface acoustic wave
device, in addition to the traditional application of ZnO film could be used in integrated
optics and gas sensors [10 13]
The most frequently used ZnO thin film growth techniques are pulsed laser deposition
(PLD), magnetron sputtering, metal oxide chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular
beam epitaxial (MBE), spray pyrolysis, sol- gel method etc., [2-5].
pulsed laser deposition technique (PLD) was chose for ZnO thin film deposition, since it has
several advantages compared to the others, the composition of the target used and the
prepared thin films are quite close, PLD film were crystalline at lower substrate temperature
with respect to other physical Vapor deposition (PVD) asa result of high kinetic energies of
the ejected atoms and the ionized species in the plasma, so this method was used to grow
ZnO films on a flexible panel display in addition to ZnO thin film is an extremely smooth
surface [13].
In designing modern optoelectronic and optical device, it is very important to know film
thickness and their optical properties such as transmittance (T), absorption coefficient () and
refractive index (n) as function of wavelength () to Predict the photoelectric behavior of the
device, Unfortunately there are great discrepancies among various studies on the optical
Properties of ZnO thin film, Reliable determination of the optical properties of ZnOthin film
is still Issue [14].
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International Journal of Applied Research
Researcher have found that the optical properties strongly
depend on the thickness of ZnO film, In this work ZnO thin
film of different thickness were prepared by pulsed laser
deposition technique (PLD) on ultrasonically cleaned
corning glass substrate at room temperature and the effect of
film thickness on their optical properties were studied.
2: Experimental Details
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared by pulsed laser
deposition technique (PLD) on an ultrasonically cleaned
corning glass substrate, Target were prepared from pure
Zinc oxide powder (99,99%) using cold pressing (5 Ton on
12mm diameter pellet), the substrate. was placed on a
rotating holder, at a distance of 1.5 cm above the target, the
target (ZnOpellet) were ablated using a-ND YAG (
=1064 nm), the fluence of 5 mJ / cm 2 were kept constant,
the ablation were carried when the substrate at room
temperature and an ambient Oxygen pressure of 0.02 mbar
for a period of 3 to 6min at a pulse repetition of 6HZ. all the
prepared ZnO thin films were annealed to 450 c in air for
3hr, to increase Oxygen absorption which will predically
Improve stoichiometry through elimination of Oxygen
vacancies [13].
Weighting method were used to estimate the amount of ZnO
needed to prepare given thickness (t), according to the
following formula (15)
t=
A = log
.. (3)
Fig. (2) Show the absorbance spectra for ZnO thin films of
different thickness, the absorbance (A) in general, decrease
as the film thickness increase, this may be due the decrease
in grain boundaries of the film structure [1] the absorption
coefficient () were calculated according to the following
relation [18]
= 2.303
(4)
Fig. (3) show the absorption coefficient () as a function of
wavelength which certainly show the same behavior of the
absorbance (A)
The extinction coefficient (K) which related to the
exponential decay of the electro. Magnetic wave in the
medium, were calculated according to the following relation
[19]
. (1)
Where m : is the mass of the material to be evaporate (gm),
R: is the source (target) to the substrate distance(cm), p : is
the density of the material to be evaporated, (gm/cm3) the
error percentage of this method ~ 30%, while the precious
thin film thickness were measured to the following formula
Using [16].
t=
subsequently result in a decrease in the absorption (A) this
may be due to the increase in the grain size as thickness
increase, which in turn cause the grain boundaries to
decrease, so photon scattering decrease resulting in an
increase in the transmittance [15].
The absorbance (A) of the incident radiation for ZnO thin
film were calculated according to the following relation [17].
K=
. (5)
Fig (4) show the extinction coefficient (K) as function of
wavelength () for different thickness, the same behavior of
the related absorption coefficient ()
(2)
Where x is the fringe width,
: the fringe shift,
: is the laser wavelength,
3. Results and Discussion
The optical properties of ZnO thin films of different
thickness (150, 180, 210, and 240) nm in the wavelength
range (300-1100) nm were studied, the transmittance spectra
for all ZnO thin films were measured Using Shimadzu
UV1650PC spectrophotometer.
Fig. (1) show the transmittance spectra of ZnO thin film of
different thickness, In general all ZnO thin films show good
optical transmittance ( 80%), their high transmittance in
visible range make these films an excellant Candidates for
transparent window in thin film solar cells, and transparent
transistor the transmittance (T), In general decrease as the
energy of the Incident radiation increase ( decrease) in
(400-1100) nm till the energy corresponding to (- 380 nm)
drastic decrease in the transmittance (absorption edge)
which result due to the increase in the absorption of photons
because its energy is sufficient to cause an electron
transition from the valence band to the conduction band [3],
which will be shown in strong absorption at the related
wavelengths, while as the film thickness increase, the
transmittance (T) in (400-1100) nm increase slightly, which
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Fig 1: The transmittance spectra of for ZnO thin films of different
thickness
Fig 2: The absorbance spectra of for ZnO thin films of different
thickness
International Journal of Applied Research
Table (1) show that the optical energy gap (Egopt) increase
slightly as the film thickness increase, this may be due to the
decrease in the localized stale density near the bands edges
[21, 22]
, whlle the low value of the optical energy gap (Egopt)
may be due to the localized stales due to defects and
impurities [2].
The reflectance spectra result due to the interference
between the reflected rays from the upper and lower surface
of the thin film, the reflectance were calculated using the
following relation [21].
R=
Fig 3: The absorption coefficient of for ZnO thin films of different
thickness
. (7)
Fig. (6) show the reflectance spectra for Zn0 thin film of
different thickness, the Reflectance(R) in general decrease
as the energy of incident radial decrease ( increase) in the
wavelength range (400-1100) nm, while it decrease as thin
film thickness (t) increase Refractive index (n) were
calculated according to the following relation [22].
n=[
K2 ]1/2-
..(8)
Fig (7) show the variation Refractive index (n) for ZnO thin
films of different thickness (t) which is similar to the
behavior of the Reflectance (R),the refractive index(n)
increase as the energy of the incident radiation increase (
decrease), while it decrease as the film thickness increase in
the wavelength range of (400- 1100) nm [23].
Fig 4: The extinction coefficient of for ZnO thin films of different
thickness
Fig 5: the variation of (h) as a function of photon energy.
The optical energy gap [Egopt] were determined using Taue
equation [20]
h = B[h -Eg]r..(6)
Where B : is Taue constant, h : is the photon energy, is
the absorption coefficient, for r = a linear relation
dependence, which describe the direct allowed transition,
the optical energy gap where calculated by plotting (h)2
versus (h) and extrapolating the straight Line portion of
this plot to photon energy axis (h) (i.e h =0).
Fig (5) show (h) 2 versus (h) for ZnO thin film of
different thickness
Fig 6: Reflectance spectra for ZnO thin films of different
thicknesses
Table 1
Film thrcknes (t) nm
150
180
210
240
Optical energy gap (Egopt)ev
3.2
3.205
3.21
3.22
Fig 7: refractive index (n) for ZnO thin films of different
thicknesses
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4. Conclusion
Zine oxide (ZnO) thin film of different thickness (150, 180,
210 and 240) nm were grown on ultrasonically cleaned
corning glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD)
technique, all ZnO thin films show high transmittance
(80%- 85% T) for thickness (180-240) nm in the wavelength
range (400-800) nm. so the increase in the film thickness
improve the quality of the etherthin film toward the higher
transmittance, also the optical calculations show that ZnO
thin film have a direct transition energy gap (Eg0pt= 3.2ev)
and it increase as the thin film thickness increase, this mean
that the increase in the thickness improve the film structure
by lowering the defect states density in the band gap.
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