K. Deva Arun Kumar* and S. Valanarasu

ABSTRACT

Transparent Conducting oxide (ZnO:Al), thin film was deposited by nebulized spray pyrolysis technique starting from zinc acetate dehydrate and aluminium chloride hexahydrate. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical characterization on the TCO thin film such as X ray diffraction, SEM, UV-visible spectrometer and four-probe studies are taken respectively. From the X-ray diffraction, the TCO thin film is polycrystalline in nature with hexagonal structure and the average crystallite size is 25 nm. The most prominent X-ray diffraction peaks corresponding to [100], [002] and [101] planes are found. The surface morphology of the prepared film shows smooth and uniform spherical grains without creaks or pinholes and well covered to the glass substrate. High transmittance and low resistivity value is presence of the TCO thin film. The direct band gap value is 3.31eV. The calculated value of activation energy Ea is 0.16eV for 0.1 M concentration. This technique is very simple and low cost to producing transparent conducting oxide thin film. Key words: Al doped ZnO, Nebulized Spray Pyrolysis, Structural, morphological, Optical and electrical measurements.

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