Study of structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnO/CuO nanocomposites

In this work, the first ZnO/CuO nanocomposites were synthesized by chemical vapour deposition (CVD), thermal evaporation (PVD) and sputtering on silicon substrates (Si). Then, the structural, optical and electrical properties of the samples were investigated. Examination of the X-ray diffraction patterns confirmed the mixed-phase formation of hexagonal zinc oxide (ZnO) and monoclinic copper oxide (CuO) phases, resulting in the formation of ZnO/CuO composite in all methods. The plan view images obtained from FESEM analysis showed that the morphology of the samples prepared by the CVD method differs from other samples and is as nanowires with an average radius of about 400 nm. Examining the sampleschr('39') optical properties showed that their bandgap is in the range of 2.05 eV-2.18 eV, which is larger than the bandgap of copper oxide (1.2 eV) and smaller than zinc oxide (3.3 eV). The composite synthesized by the CVD method has the lowest reflectance, and the sample prepared by the PVD method has the highest reflectance in the visible and near-infrared ranges. Examination of the room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the sample prepared by PVD showed that these samples have emission peaks with significant intensities in the ultraviolet and visible ranges. The sampleschr('39') electrical properties showed that the ZnO/CuO composite synthesized by sputtering and CVD had the lowest and highest electrical resistance, respectively. The sampleschr('39') optical response study showed that the sputtering methodchr('39')s nanocomposites have the highest response. This study showed that, in general, the structural, optical and electrical properties and morphology of synthesized ZnO/CuO composites are significantly affected by their synthesis method.