International Journal of Materials Engineering and Technology
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Abstract: Titanium-doped zinc oxide thin films,
deposited on soda-lime glass substrates, are formed by sol-gel technique. Zinc
acetate dihydrate and titanium (IV) oxide acetylacetonate are used as
precursor materials, where 2-methoxyethanol and monoethanolamine are used as
solvent and stabilizer, respectively. The influence of the titanium
concentration on their electrical resistivity and morphological properties of
ZnO:Ti is studied. The electrical resistivity measurements show high values in
all the cases, independently as the thin film is adsorbed on the substrate.
After a heat treatment in an argon atmosphere, a decrease in their resistivity
values is observed. The SEM and AFM measurements show that the film surface
morphology changes from fine columnar crystallites to smooth surface when the
samples doped with titanium increase, otherwise, the XRD studies show a
polycrystalline structure in all the cases, with a predominant (002)
preferential growth and the X-ray diffraction intensities peaks enhance when the
molar ratio
increases. Typical optical
transmittance and photoluminescence studies are also performed, from
which a bandgap of
3.2 eV is evaluated in films deposited under optimal
conditions of conductivity and
transmittance.
