The effect of the solution flow rate on the properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited by ultrasonic spray

Abstract

In this work, we used a system based on ultrasonic spray pyrolysis technique. By witch, we have deposited thin films of zinc oxide (ZnO) with the variation of solution flow rate from 50ml/h to 150ml/h, and set other parameters such as the concentration of the solution, the deposition time, substrate temperature and the nozzel-substrate distance. In order to study the influence of the solution flow rate on the properties of the films produced, we have several characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction to determine the films structure, the scanning electron microscopy SEM for the morphology of the surfaces, EDS spectroscopy for the chemical composition, UV-Visible-Nir spectroscopy for determination the optical proprieties of thin films.The experimental results show that: the films have hexagonal structure at the type (wurtzite), the average size of grains varies from 20.11 to 32.45nm, the transmittance of the films equals 80% in visible rang and the band gap is varied between 3.274 and 3.282 eV, when the solution flow rate increases from 50 to 150ml/h.