Preparation and Characterization of Transparent Conducting Mn and Ni-Doped Zinc Oxide Films Prepared by Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction Method

This paper reported the preparation and characterization of transparent conducting oxide thin films. Undoped and doped ZnO thin films were prepared by SILAR method. The micro-structural and optical properties were investigated. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the prepared thin films are polycrystalline in nature and has a hexagonal structure. The micro-structural properties of prepared thin films were calculated and crystallite size tends to changes due to dopant. The texture coefficients have been evaluated and found to be greater than unity revealing high texturing of the film. Undoped and Mn-doped ZnO prefer the orientation of (002) but Ni-doped ZnO and Mn and Ni co-doped ZnO prefers (100) orientation. The transmittance spectra of pure and transition metal-doped films were plotted against UV-Vis-NIR region and found that the transmittance changes with dopant and nature of doping. The optical band gap values were found to be in the range of 3.00–3.39 eV. The optical constants such as extinction coefficient, refractive index, dielectric constant and optical conductivity were examined.