Doping effect on SILAR synthesized crystalline nanostructured Cu-doped ZnO thin films grown on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates and its characterization

Abstract

In the present study, a novel chemical route is used to synthesize the undoped and Cu-doped ZnO thin films in aqueous solution by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The synthesized thin films are characterized by x-ray diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX), contact angle goniometer and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. XRD study shows that the prepared films are polycrystalline in nature with hexagonal crystal structure. The change in morphology for different doping is observed in the studies of FE-SEM. EDAX spectrum shows that the thin films consist of zinc, copper and oxygen elements. Contact angle goniometer is used to measure the contact angle between a liquid and a solid interface and after detection, the nature of the films is initiated from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. The optical band gap energy for direct allowed transition ranging between 1.60-2.91 eV is observed.