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Structural and optical properties of ZnO nanoflakes/Al/glass via laser-assisted chemical bath deposition (LACBD) technique

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Abstract

In the present paper, zinc oxide nanoflakes (ZnO NFs) have been prepared by a laser-assisted chemical bath deposition technique on a buffer metal layer of aluminum (Al). A continuous flow cavity design has been used, with a wavelength of 460 nm and a power output of 1 W, with a 30 min continuous laser irradiation period. The surface morphology and crystallinity have been investigated without/with post-annealing at 400 °C for 3 h, respectively. The field emission scanning electron microscope images show uniformly distributed, dense ZnO NFs and improved morphologies combined with EDX analysis. The XRD patterns showed that the synthesized ZnO NFs have a hexagonal wurtzite structure and exhibit a preferred orientation along the c-axis for all the samples. The crystallite size was found to be 8.72 nm and 18.70 nm, respectively. The Fourier Transform Infrared spectrum verifies the presence of vibrational modes of the Zn single bond O bond. UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis) absorbance spectra analysis indicated that the energy bandgap (Eg) for ZnO nanoparticles was found to be 3.25 eV and 3.4 eV, respectively. According to the results, the Al buffer layer plays an essential role in the growth orientation and growth rate of the ZnO NFs. However, the results showed that the post-annealing effectively modified the surface structures and topography properties of the polycrystalline ZnO thin films (TFs).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the School of Physics Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for providing the research facilities and support. We appreciate the financial support from the RCMO USM through the Short-Term Grant (304/PFIZIK/6315514).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), 1800, Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia

    Abdulwahab Salem Zaroug Lahewil, Naser M. Ahmed & Nurul Zahirah Noor Azman

  2. The Institute of Science and Technology of Al-Orban, Al-Orban, Libya

    Abdulwahab Salem Zaroug Lahewil

  3. The Ministry of Technical & Vocational Education, Tripoli, Libya

    Abdulwahab Salem Zaroug Lahewil

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  1. Abdulwahab Salem Zaroug Lahewil
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Lahewil, A.S.Z., Ahmed, N.M. & Azman, N.Z.N. Structural and optical properties of ZnO nanoflakes/Al/glass via laser-assisted chemical bath deposition (LACBD) technique. Appl. Phys. A 127, 836 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04996-7

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