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Role of annealing environments on the local electronic and optical properties of zinc oxide films

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Abstract

The exploration of zinc oxide (ZnO) has seen rapid growth due to its wide bandgap, high thermal conductivity, and high electron mobility within its nanostructures, making it highly valuable for applications in electronic and optical devices. This study involves the deposition of ZnO nanostructures onto a quartz substrate using the thermal evaporation deposition technique. The research delves into the influence of various annealing environments on morphology and electronic/atomic structures. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals the development of the ZnO phase with a preferred orientation when annealed in a mixture of hydrogen and argon gases. It was observed that the films do not transform into complete ZnO for the as-prepared and for lower temperatures (< 400 °C). Annealing at lower temperatures or room temperature retains the metallic Zn. When subjected to higher annealing temperatures in the presence of oxygen and ambient conditions, formation of ZnO hexagonal wurtzite structures was evident. A wide variation in the morphology was observed for films annealed in different annealing environments, from petal-like structures to rods. Both the band edge and defect emissions using photoluminescence were observed to vary with varying annealing conditions. In-situ XANES uncovers the reduction of Zn and metallic nature noticed in the as-prepared sample and argon annealing at 400 °C. A higher charge transfer by Zn with a prominent delocalization of Zn 4p state was observed in oxygen annealing environment at 400 °C with an enhanced coordination of Zn–O and Zn–Zn. These distinct photoluminescence emissions from the films were correlated to the electronic structure and local atomic structure. Further, this investigation provides a path to develop next-generation optoelectronic devices.

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Funding

The authors are thankful to Institute of Eminence, IoE 2021-22, and 2022-23, project no. IOE/2021-22/12/FRP, and IOE/2023-24/12/FRP University of Delhi for their funding. To University Science Instrumentation Center (USIC), University of Delhi for the XRD, SEM facilities. The National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, NSSRC, Hsinchu, Taiwan for the PL and EXAFS facility. The financial support given to one of the authors, AM in the form of fellowship by CSIR is gratefully appreciated. The authors would like to acknowledge the TEEP Asia plus program and MoST project grant 110-2112-M-032-013-MY3, Taiwan, for all the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Akanksha Motla & S. Annapoorni

  2. Department of Physics, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taipei, 251301, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

    Thanigai Arul Kumaravelu & Chung-Li Dong

  3. Department of Biomaterials, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600 077, India

    Thanigai Arul Kumaravelu

  4. National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, NSSRC, Hsinchu, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

    Chi-Liang Chen

  5. Department of Physics & Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248007, India

    K. Asokan

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  1. Akanksha Motla
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Contributions

AM and SA: devised the area of study. AM: performed the experiments. AKT and C-LD: supervised the analysis of synchrotron data. C-LD and C-LC: provided all the useful standard data. C-LD: verified all the synchrotron results. AM: wrote the manuscript. KA: supervised the initial draft of the manuscript and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors carefully commented on the manuscript. SA: provided the critical analysis and directed the reported manuscript.

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Correspondence to S. Annapoorni.

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Motla, A., Kumaravelu, T.A., Dong, CL. et al. Role of annealing environments on the local electronic and optical properties of zinc oxide films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 267 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12018-4

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