dopant-concentration dependent optical and structural properties of cu-doped zns thin films

In this paper, using the chemical bath deposition method and employing the suitable deposition temperature, internal doping of cu^2+ ions into nanocrystalline zns thin films is reported. x-ray diffraction analysis (xrd) was used to evaluate the structure of the films, which consists of sub-7 nm crystallites of the cubic zns. fe-sem images indicated that the surface morphology of the cu-doped zns films is strongly dependent on dopant level. the influence of the cu^2+ ions concentration on optical and specially photoluminescence properties of the cu:zns thin films have been investigated and discussed. defect-free emission spectra at low deposition temperatures and the appearance of the dopant-related emission peak at higher temperatures demonstrate that this method is an effective strategy for chemical deposition of the cu-doped zns nanocrystals on glass substrates. furthermore, the concentration quenching effect on photoluminescence intensity has been observed which can be related to non-radiative transitions between electronic energy levels of the neighboring cu^2+ ions in the zns host lattice.