Sol-gel derived ZnO:Sn thin films and fabrication of n-ZnO:Sn/p-Si heterostructure

Abstract

In this work ZnO:Sn thin films were deposited onto glass and p-Si substrates by spin coating of prepared sols which contains different amounts of Zn(CH3COO)2·2H2O and SnCl2 (0, 5, 10 and 15%). Physical properties of ZnO films were examined as a function of SnCl2 in prepared sols. In addition to that, heterostructure examinations were also carried out by depositing all films on p-Si substrates as well. XRD studies revealed that all films have c-axis orientation with crystallite sizes between 38 and 47 nm. AFM and SEM images showed that morphology of the films remarkably deteriorated with the increase in amount of SnCl2 in sol. Optical transmittance and absorbance spectra showed that films have high transmittance and low absorbance in the visible region. Besides, optical band gap increased from 3.27 eV to 3.37 eV. Additional band gap energies were determined for 10% and 15% Sn doped ZnO films. Room temperature photoluminescence spectra for all films were deconvoluted for the evaluation of all emission bands and it was noted that incorporation of SnCl2 into sol led to enhancement of UV-blue emission bands and caused emission bands related to oxygen vacancies to diminish. Four-point-probe measurements revealed that electrical resistivity of ZnO:Sn films increased from 3.20 × 100 Ωcm to 2.82 × 104 Ωcm and diode ideality factor of Ag/ZnO:Sn/p-Si/Au heterostructure was calculated to be in the range of 2.14–4.59 while zero-bias barrier height is in the range of 0.63–0.78 eV.