Investigation of chemical bath deposition of ZnO thin films using six different complexing agents

Chemical bath deposition of ZnO thin films using six different complexing agents, namely ammonia, hydrazine, ethanolamine, methylamine, triethanolamine and dimethylamine, is investigated. As-grown films were mainly ZnO2 with a band gap around 4.3 eV. Films annealed at 400 ◦C were identified as ZnO with a band gap around 3.3 eV. X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy revealed that as-grown films consist mainly of cubic zinc peroxide that was transformed into hexagonal ZnO after annealing. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) detected excess oxygen content in ZnO films after annealing. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of as-grown films showed a broad absorption band around 3300 cm−1 suggesting that the as-grown films may consist of a mixture of zinc peroxide and zinc hydroxide. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy multiplex spectra of the O 1s peak were found to be consistent with film stoichiometry revealed by RBS. High-resolution transmission electron micrographs showed small variations of the order of 10 nm in film thickness which corresponds to the average grain size. A carrier density as high as 2.24×1019 cm−3 and a resistivity as low as 6.48 × 10−1 cm were obtained for films annealed at 500 ◦C in argon ambient. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)