Investigations of structural, optical, electrical and photocatalytic behavior of ZnO:N thin films for p-type substrate: Influence of annealing temperature

Abstract

This study used a simplified, automated spray pyrolysis setup with a perfume atomizer to prepare nitrogen (N) doped ZnO thin films. The deposited thin films were annealed at 300 ºC to 500 ºC under a nitrogen atmosphere. In the present work, detailed investigations are carried out on the effect of annealing on structural, optical, and surface morphological, photoluminescence, and electrical properties of p-type ZnO:N thin films. The effect of annealing temperature on the photocatalytic activity of N-doped ZnO thin films was studied, the degradation efficacy was and 91%. The XRD diffractograms depicted that all the prepared films have a wurtzite structure, high crystallinity, and C-axis orientation. The increased annealing temperature received a red shift in the band gap. A flake-like morphology was observed from SEM images. The p-type to n-type conductivity transformation is kept at the maximum applied annealing temperature of 500 ºC. A resistivity received ∼ 21.7 Ω cm was obtained for 400 ºC annealing temperature. Photocatalytic studies confirmed that higher degradation efficiency was exhibited for higher annealing temperatures. The present investigations reveal that the properties of p-ZnO:N thin films are highly suitable for optoelectronic applications.

Keywords

• Perfume atomizer
• p-ZnO:N films
• annealing effect
• Electrical properties
• Photocatalysis