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Preparation and optical properties of high-quality oriented of Al and Er co-doped ZnO thin films

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Abstract

High-quality c-axis oriented Al and Er co-doped ZnO films were prepared on the quartz glasses by sol–gel method. In order to obtain the optimal processing parameters for the growth of the oriented film, an L16 (45) orthogonal experimental design was chosen. The experimental results show the rank of 5-factors as follows: Er at.% > the number of coating layer > annealing temperature > Al at.% > the concentration of the sol. The Al and Er co-doped film prepared using the optimal parameters exhibits the preferential orientation along the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. In addition, the structural, morphological and optical properties of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and UV–visible spectrophotometer, respectively. The photoluminescence spectra were also used to characterize the luminescence properties of the samples. It is found that when ZnO was co-doped with 7 % Al and 1.5 % Er, the blue emission centered at 465 nm disappears and the green emission centered at 547 nm increases with a blue shift, resulted from the rapid reducing of the interstitial Zn defect, and increasing of the oxygen defects and vacancies caused by Al3+ and Er3+ dopants.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the Weaponry Equipment Pre-research Foundation of China (08HK0206), and Opening Funds of The Key Laboratory of Thin Films of Jiangsu (KJS0833), Jiangsu Postdoctoral Science Research Foundation (1102056C). We would like to acknowledge them for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, No. 29 Yudao Street, Nanjing, 210016, People’s Republic of China

    Ji-Zhou Kong, Fei Zhou, Zheng Wang, Chuan-Bao Wang, Mei-Ling Wang, Kong-Jun Zhu & Jin-Hao Qiu

  2. Center of Analysis, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Kang-Min Chen

  3. School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University, Suzhou, 215006, People’s Republic of China

    Xue-Mei Wu

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  1. Ji-Zhou Kong
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  2. Fei Zhou
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Correspondence to Fei Zhou.

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Kong, JZ., Zhou, F., Wang, Z. et al. Preparation and optical properties of high-quality oriented of Al and Er co-doped ZnO thin films. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 63, 95–102 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-012-2768-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-012-2768-9

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