Comparative study of ZnO optical dispersion laws

Abstract We report a comparative study between Forouhi-Bloomer, Tauc-Lorentz and Tanguy dispersion laws for determining the reliable dielectric function of crystallized ZnO. ZnO layers were prepared by sol-gel method and deposited on crystalline silicon (c-Si) by spin coating. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) was performed on ZnO/c-Si and each dispersion law was considered in the physical model for fitting SE experimental data. A best agreement was found between measurements and model. This applies in particular to the Tanguy dispersion. The physical parameters such as excitonic energy, optical gap, damping factor, real and imaginary parts of dielectric function were determined and analyzed. The temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) measurements were also used to approve the adequate dispersion law for ZnO material. We found by SE and PL measurements that Tanguy law dispersion can be considered as the most appropriate one for a correct description of ZnO optical dielectric function and for the interpretation of the absorption tail band and for the excitonic band of crystallized ZnO. The band-gap energy, excitonic energy and damping factor parameter are determined and analyzed. Their values (3.37 eV, 48 meV and 39 meV, respectively) extracted from ellipsometry are in good agreement with those obtained by PL measurements.