Synthesis and characterization of rare earth element (Re) doped one dimensional ZnO nanostructures as transparent conducting oxide films

ZnO is an n-type semiconductor with a direct wide band gap of 3.37 eV at room temperature which has been receiving considerable attention due to its potential utility in various applications such as optoelectronics, solar cells, gas sensing, field emission, piezoelectrics, transparent conductive oxide, transistors and supercapacitors. In this study, undoped and Gadolinyum (Gd)-doped ZnO nanorods (NRs) were produced on glass substrates via spin coating and hydrothermal methods. The effect of Gd doped on the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of ZnO-NRs was examined by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission electron microscopy (FE- SEM), ultravioletevisible range spectrometry (UV-Vis) and four probe DC method.