DEPOSITION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZnO NANONEEDLES BY FACILE SOLUTION PROCESS

Abstract

ZnO nanoneedle clustered thin film with individual needles of length of 1000-1500 nm and diameter of around 100-200 nm were deposited on top of ZnO buffer layer coated indium doped tin oxide (ITO) glass substrate and quartz substrate by a facile solution process which is both cheap and has a low thermal budget. The microstructure of the as deposited thin films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), whereas the x-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to determine the crystal structure in these nanoneedles. The optical characteristics of the thin films were obtained by determining the optical transmittance of the films at room temperature. The ZnO nanoneedle thin films had a bandgap of about 3.21 eV. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra obtained at room temperature confirmed the presence of defects related luminescence characterized by the broad PL peak centered at 2.1 eV.