Title: Effect of annealing on optical properties and surface structure of ZnO:V thin films

Authors: Wei Xu; Weixing Yao

Addresses: Key Laboratory of Fundamental Science for National Defence-Advanced Design Technology of Flight Vehicle, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China; Science and Technology on Space Physics Laboratory, Beijing, 100076, China ' Key Laboratory of Fundamental Science for National Defence-Advanced Design Technology of Flight Vehicle, Nanjing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

Abstract: The influence of annealing temperature on microstructures, optical properties and magnetic properties of ZnO:V films has been studied. The chemical ingredient was examined by energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). From the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples, it has been found that the orientation of zinc oxide thin films was not changed by annealing the films in air and vacuum. All the films prepared have a wurtzite structure and grow mainly along the c-axis orientation. The grain size and the residual stress were calculated from the XRD results. The optical transmittance of the film increased with the increasing of the annealing temperature. The influence of annealing on the surface roughness and structures was examined by atomic force microscopy. It was observed that the surface of the sample annealing at 300ºC is very smooth and the value of roughness is about 1.5-1.7 nm in Ra and then increased with increasing the annealing temperature. The magnetic properties were examined by superconducting quantum interference device. The films annealed in vacuum exhibit room temperature ferromagnetism but the films annealed in air above 300ºC were not ferromagnetic at room temperature.

Keywords: ZnO:V thin films; vanadium doped ZnO; zinc oxide; magnetron sputtering; optical properties; ferromagnetism; annealing temperature; microstructure; magnetic properties; nanotechnology; surface structure; grain size; residual stress; surface roughness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2015.071800

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2015 Vol.12 No.10/11/12, pp.886 - 895

Published online: 18 Sep 2015 *

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