Effect of lithium salt precursors on the physical properties of ZnO-Li thin films

•ZnO-Li thin films sol-gel deposited with different Li salts in precursor.•Li nitrate precursors lead to highly c-axis oriented ZnO-Li films•5% and 10% Li nitrate precursors resulted in maximum optical transmittance•5% Li nitrate precursor yielded the lowest resistivity at 0.057 mΩ/cm of ZnO film Zi...

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Published inThin solid films Vol. 725; p. 138644
Main Authors Meziane, K., Hamidi, A. El, Elmahboub, E., Diliberto, S., Hichou, A. El, Almaggoussi, A., Stein, N.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.05.2021
Elsevier
Subjects
Chemical Sciences
Electrical properties
Lithium salt
Material chemistry
Optical properties
Sol-gel
Thin films
Zinc oxide
Thin films
Zinc oxide
Lithium salt
Electrical properties
Sol-gel
Optical properties
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Summary:•ZnO-Li thin films sol-gel deposited with different Li salts in precursor.•Li nitrate precursors lead to highly c-axis oriented ZnO-Li films•5% and 10% Li nitrate precursors resulted in maximum optical transmittance•5% Li nitrate precursor yielded the lowest resistivity at 0.057 mΩ/cm of ZnO film Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared on glass substrates with three different lithium salt precursors (acetate, chloride and nitrates) with Li/Zn atomic ratio varying between 0% and 20% using sol-gel deposition and spin-coating technique. The aim of the work was to compare the physical properties of lithium containing ZnO thin layers obtained using different Li salt precursors; in order to identify the most suitable one. The X-ray diffraction measurements showed that all 500°C annealed films were polycrystalline. The samples prepared from lithium nitrates solutions showed a preferred orientation along c-axis (002) and their crystallites sizes are much larger compared to other Li source. The ultraviolet-visible transmission spectra confirmed the good transparency of all ZnO films with an average transmission around 85 % in the visible range. The optical band gap values varied between 3.19 eV and 3.28 eV. All the results revealed that the ZnO-Li films prepared with LiNO3 exhibit the highest crystallographic quality and the best optical and electrical properties compared to C2H3LiO2 and LiCl containing precursors.
ISSN:0040-6090
1879-2731
DOI:10.1016/j.tsf.2021.138644