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In this work, transparent and conductive Al-doped ZnO (AZO) nanofilms were prepared on quartz substrate by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) method. The effects of Al/Zn atomic ratios on the micro-structural, morphological, optical photoluminescence and electrical properties of AZO thin films were effectively investigated. All the prepared samples showed hexagonal wurtzite structure. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the surface morphology of all samples changed with the substrate temperature. The average transmittance of all AZO samples was higher than 85% in the visible region. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of the samples showed that the near band edge emission in PL spectra shifted to shorter wavelengths with increasing Al-doped concentration. The lowest sheet resistance was obtained for the samples prepared with 4% at. Al-doped value. The electrical conductivity of AZO films was improved by Al doping, which allowed their use as optoelectronic materials.

In this paper, ZnO nanofilms are prepared on quartz substrate by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) technology. The effects of substrate temperature and deposition time on the micro-structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnO thin films are investigated in detail. Measurements indicate that the growth process of the film is as follows: Micro grains accumulation $\to$ grains’ expansion $\to$ grow into certain nanostructures under different temperature. Nanostructures of the film are as follows: Irregular broken hexagonal-like structure ($<450^{\circ }$C); coexisting of broken hexagonal- and sheet-like structure (450–500${}^{\circ }$C); regular closed packed sheets-like structure ($>500^{\circ }$C). In addition, all results show that RMS roughness of the films is less than 20 nm. Moreover, the visible transmittance of these samples is higher than 90%. Which display that ZnO films with low roughness and excellent optical properties can be also fabricated by low-cost USP method.

New USP Research Center in India.

2004 Products Innovation of the Year: Abilify^®.