Doping and annealing effects on ZnO:Cd thin films by sol–gel method

Abstract In this article, ZnO:Cd films were successfully deposited on glass substrates by a sol–gel technique. The influence of doping concentration and annealing temperature effects was carefully investigated. All films exhibited c -axis preferential orientation and optical transparency with visible transmittance >80%. The minimum room temperature resistivity of 0.0341 Ω cm was obtained with 10 at.% Cd doping under 600 °C annealing temperature. The optical band gap of ZnO:Cd film was reduced as Cd doping concentration increased, while the band gap increased with the increase of annealing temperature.