Characterization, deposition of the ce doped ZnO films and its device application

In this thesis, undoped and Cerium (Ce) doped Zinc oxide (ZnO) films were on glass and p-Si substrates produced by sol-gel spin coating technique. p-Si/n-ZnO:Ce heterojunction diodes were fabricated by using thermal evaporation method. The structural parameters of the films such as full-width of the half maximum, lattice constants, texture coefficient and dislocation densities were calculated from the X-ray diffraction patterns of the films. The percent transmittance values were obtained from transmittance spectra of the films and the optical band gap values were obtained from absorption spectra. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to examine the morphological properties of the films and it was observed that the film roughness values and particle size decreased with the increase of Ce doping ratio. The elemental analysis confirmed the presence of Zn, O and Ce in the films. For electrical characterization of p-Si/n-ZnO:Ce heterojunction diodes, current-voltage measurements were obtained and diode parameters (ideality factor and barrier height) were calculated. Keywords: ZnO, Ce, Sol-gel spin coating technique, Heterojunction diode.