Abstract
Carbon-doped zinc oxide thin films (C:ZnO) were deposited via RF magnetron sputtering onto glass and Si substrates to investigate their viability as transparent and conductive oxide thin films. Incorporating highly inert carbon atoms into the ZnO thin films modulated the inherent defect sites, with the dopant concentration controlled by varying the number of graphite serving as carbon sources. The C:ZnO thin film with a nominal carbon concentration of 16% exhibited a sheet resistance of 224 Ω/□ and transparency in the visible regions. Moreover, an increasing trend in the photo-luminescence peak intensity was observed by carbon doping. The optical band gap values of the C:ZnO thin films decreased from 3.22 to 2.98 eV with increasing carbon concentration. Furthermore, a linear relationship was discerned between the band gap energy and tail width. The results of this study suggest that the C:ZnO thin film holds considerable promise as a transparent and conductive phosphor screen for implementation in solar cells and field emission displays.
Graphical abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
When we used data from other researchers, we mentioned it in the manuscript and added it in the reference section.
References
Ansari, S.A., Cho, M.H.: Facile and sustainable synthesis of carbon-doped ZnO nanostructures towards the superior visible light photocatalytic performance. New J. Chem. 41(17), 9314–9320 (2017)
Bafandeh, N., Solaymani, Sh., Sabbaghzadeh, J., Dejam, L., Ghaderi, A., Țălu, Ș, Shafiekhani, A., Sari, A.H.: Carbon nanotubes/polyaniline as hydrogen gas sensor: optical band gap, micro-morphology, and skin depth studies. AIP Adv. 13, 035309 (2023)
Dejam, L., Solaymani, Sh., Kulesza, S., Ghaderi, A., Ţălu, Ş, Bramowicz, M.: ITO: n-ZnO: p-NiO and ITO: n-ZnO: p-NZO thin films: study of crystalline structures, surface statistical metrics, and optical properties. Microsc. Res. Tech. 85, 3674–3693 (2022)
Dejam, L., Kulesza, S., Sabbaghzadeh, J., Ghaderi, A., Solaymani, Sh., Țălu, Ș, Bramowicz, M., Amouamouha, M., Sari, A.H.: ZnO, Cu-doped ZnO, Al-doped ZnO and Cu-Al doped ZnO thin films: advanced micro-morphology, crystalline structures and optical properties. Res. Phys. 44, 106209 (2023)
Ghaderi, A., Shafiekhani, A., Solaymani, S., Ţălu, Ş, da Fonseca Filho, H.D., Ferreira, N.S., Matos, R.S., Zahrabi, H., Dejam, L.: Advanced microstructure, morphology and CO gas sensor properties of Cu/Ni bilayers at nanoscale. Sci. Rep. 12, 12002 (2022)
Ghaderi, A., Shafiekhani, A., Ţălu, Ş, Dejam, L., Solaymani, Sh., Morozov, I.A., Matos, R.S., Ferreira, N.S., Sari, A.H.: Evaluating structural, morphological, and multifractal aspects of n-ZnO/p-ZnO homojunctions and n-ZnO/p-NiO heterojunctions. Microsc. Res. Tech. 86(6), 731–741 (2023)
Ghaffari, V., Ilkhani, M., Pashangpour, M., Bagheri, Z.: Strain-engineering of anisotropic behavior in the electrical and optical properties of graphene-like borophene hydride, a DFT calculation. Comput. Mater. Sci. 200, 110778 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commatsci.2021.110778
Hosseini, S., Dejam, L., Elahi, H.: The characterization of amorphous AZO-n/Si-p hetrojunction diode for solar cell application. Opt. Quantum Electron. 54, 183 (2022)
Hsu, C.W., Zhen, B., Qiu, W., Shapira, O., DeLacy, B.G., Joannopoulos, J.D., Soljacic, M.: Transparent displays enabled by resonant nanoparticle scattering. Nat. Commun. 5, 3152 (2013)
Ilkhani, M., Dejam, L.: Structural and optical properties of ZnO and Ni:ZnO thin films: the trace of post-annealing. J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 32, 3460–3474 (2021)
Ilkhani, M., Abolhassani, M.R., Aslaninejad, M.: Valence fluctuations in CeIn3 under the effect of pressure. Eur. Phys. J. b. 65, 21–28 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00323-6
Ilkhani, M., Yeganeh, M., Boochani, A., Yari, A.: Electronic structure and magnetic properties of the CoFeMnZ (Z=As and Si) Heuslers by XAS, XMCD and MOKE: A DFT study. Mater. Today Commun. 26, 101773 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2020.101773
Kim, G.W., Lampande, R., Boizot, J., Kim, G.H., Choe, D.C., Kwon, J.H.: An efficient nano-composite layer for highly transparent organic light emitting diodes. Nanoscale 6, 3810–3817 (2014)
Lee, X., Chou, C.Y., Bi, Z., Tsa, C.F., Wang, H.: Growth controlled surface roughness in Al-doped ZnO as transparent conducting oxide. Nanotechnology 20, 395704 (2009)
Nagare, B.J., Chacko, S., Kanhere, D.G.: Ferromagnetism in carbon-doped zinc oxide systems. J. Phys. Chem. A 114, 2689–2696 (2010)
Roy, S., Basu, S.: Improved zinc oxide film for gas sensor applications. Bull. Mater. Sci. 25, 513–515 (2002)
Sarkar, D., Ghosh, C.K., Chattopadhyay, K.K.: Carbon doped ZnO thin film: unusual nonlinear variation in band gap and electrical characteristic. Appl. Surf. Sci. 418, 252–257 (2017)
Smet, P.F., Moreels, I., Hens, Z., Poelman, D.: Luminescence in sulfides: a rich history and a bright future. Materials 3, 2834–2883 (2010)
Solaymani, S., Ţălu, Ş, Nezafat, N.B., Dejam, L., Shafiekhani, A., Ghaderi, A., Zelati, A.: Optical properties and surface dynamics analyses of homojunction and hetrojunction Q/ITO/ZnO/NZO and Q/ITO/ZnO/NiO thin films. Results Phys. 29, 104679 (2021)
Srivastava, A.K., Kumar, J.: Effect of zinc addition and vacuum annealing time on the properties of spin-coated low-cost transparent conducting 1 at% Ga–ZnO thin films. Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 14, 065002 (2013)
Subramanian, M., Akaike, Y., Hayashi, Y., Tanemura, M., Ping, D.L.S.: Effect of defects in ferromagnetic C doped ZnO thin films. Phys. Status Sol. B 249, 1254–1257 (2012)
Tseng, L.T., Yi, J.B., Zhang, X.Y., Xing, G.Z., Fan, H.M., Herng, T.S., Luo, X., Ionescu, M., Ding, J., Li, S.: Green emission in carbon doped ZnO films. AIP Adv. 4, 067117 (2014)
Wang, Q.P., Zhang, D.H., Xue, Z.Y., Hao, X.T.: Violet luminescence emitted from ZnO films deposited on Si substrate by rf magnetron sputtering. Appl. Surf. Sci. 201(1–4), 123–128 (2002)
Wang, Y.F., Shao, Y.C., Hsieh, S.H., Chang, Y.K., Yeh, P.H., Hsueh, H.C., Chiou, J.W., Wang, H.T., Ray, S.C., Tsai, H.M., Pao, C.W., Chen, C.H., Lin, H.J., Lee, J.F., Wu, C.T., Wu, J.J., Chang, Y.M., Asokan, K., Chae, K.H., Ohigashi, T., Takagi, Y., Yokoyama, T., Kosugi, N., Pong, W.F.: Origin of magnetic properties in carbon implanted ZnO nanowires. Sci. Rep. 8, 7758 (2018)
Zhang, D.H., Xue, Z.Y., Wang, Q.P.: The mechanisms of blue emission from ZnO films deposited on glass substrate by r.f. magnetron sputtering. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 35, 2837 (2002)
Zulkifli, Z., Subramanian, M., Tsuchiya, T., Rosmi, M.S., Ghosh, P., Kalita, G., Tanemura, M.: Highly transparent and conducting C:ZnO thin film for field emission display. RSC Adv. 4(110), 64763–64770 (2014)
Funding
We did not receive any funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Ilkhani and Dejam contributed together in all parts of this work. Please consider this paper as an original research not a review. Unfortunately, I could not find anywhere to change the article type.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics approval
This study is not based on humans or animals; therefore, an Ethical Approval is not available.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Dejam, L., Ilkhani, M. Characterization of carbon-doped ZnO thin films: case study on doping concentration and substrate. Opt Quant Electron 56, 444 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-023-06071-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-023-06071-2