Structural, functional, morphological, and photoluminescence properties of spin coated nanostructured ZnO thin films

Abstract

This study is focused on the synthesis and characterization of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films via spin-coating method. The impact of varying the number of spin-coating layers on the formation of compact, uniform, and well-crystallined ZnO thin films is investigated. The ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of 65 nm are homogeneously distributed over the film surface. The structural and functional properties of the ZnO thin film are analyzed by the XRD, FT-IR, Raman, UV–Vis, and photoluminescence techniques. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was employed to analyze the surface morphology along with thickness which confirms the uniform, layered, and compact deposition of the ZnO nanoparticles. The thickness of ZnO thin films is varied from 200 nm to 1 μm. The element determination and composition analysis is observed using EDS spectra. The near band emission peaks at 395–399 nm along with deep level emission peaks are seen from photoluminescence analysis. The band gap of as-dried and annealed ZnO thin films are observed in between 3.01 and 3.27 eV. The drying and annealing effect on physico-chemical properties of ZnO thin films will beneficial for solar cell application. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.