Influence of Sn Low Doping on the Morphological, Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Films Deposited by Sol Gel Dip-Coating

In this work, Undoped Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and Sndoped Zinc Oxide (ZnO:Sn) films have been deposited by sol-gel dip coating method, where the Sn/Zn atomic ratio was 3% and 5% in the solution. The effects of Sn incorporation on morphological, structural and optical properties of ZnO films were investigated. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed that the morphological surface of the films was affected by Sn low doping. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that all films have polycrystalline structures, and the doping incorporation has not lead to substantial changes in the structural characteristics of ZnO films. The crystallite size was calculated using the well-known Scherrer’s formula and found to be in the range of 23 - 40 nm. The measurements from UV-Visible Spectrophotometer (U-Vis) indicated that the highest average optical transmittance in the visible region was related to Undoped ZnO film, then the optical band gap and Urbach energy values of thin films were calculated. The X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) has demonstrated that Sn is incorporated in ZnO lattice.