The Effect of Deposition Temperature on Solid State Properties of Chemically Deposited Zinc Oxide Thin Films

Abstract

The optical, structural, surface morphology and elemental composition
of chemically deposited ZnO thin films at varying deposition
temperatures were studied. The films deposited at room temperature
had the highest transmittance of 70.52 %, and films deposited at 70oC
had an average transmittance of 38.85 %. The energy gap was between
3.52 and 3.62 eV. The structural properties showed that some of the
films were amorphous and some were crystalline, as revealed by the
XRD pattern. The diameters of crystals, micro lattice strain, and
dislocation density of the crystalline films were measured with the
Debye Scherrer. The crystallite size was between 49.1 and 60.91 nm,
the micro lattice strain ranged between 6.35 and 8.60 x 10-4, and the
dislocation density was between 2,69 X 1014 and 4.13 X 1014 lines per
metre cube. The films covered the substrate and were smooth but the
films deposited at 40oC, which showed some high particles on the
surface as revealed by surface morphology. The elemental
compositions of the films showed that zinc and oxygen were present for
all the films except the films deposited at 40oC, which had a low
percentage of carbon.