Synthesis and Characterization of Copper Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Films Deposited by RF/DC Sputtering Technique

Undoped and copper(Cu)doped zinc oxide(Zn_(1-x)Cu_(x)O,where x=0-0.065)nano crystal thin films have been deposited on glass substrate via RF/DC reactive co-sputtering technique.The aim of this work is to investigate the crystal structure of ZnO and Cu doped ZnO thin films and also study the effect of Cu doping on optical band gap of ZnO thin films.The identification and confirmation of the crystallinity,film thickness and surface morphology of the nano range thin films are confirmed by using X-ray diffractometer(XRD),scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope.The XRD peak at a diffractive angle of 34.44°and Miller indices at(002)confirms the ZnO thin films.Crystallite size of undoped ZnO thin films is 27 nm and decreases from 27 nm to 22 nm with increasing the atomic fraction of Cu(x_(Cu))in the ZnO thin films from 0 to 6.5%respectively,which is calculated from XRD(002)peaks.The different bonding information of all deposited films was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer in the range of wave number between 400 cm^(-1) to 4000 cm^(-1).Optical band gap energy of all deposited thin films was analyzed by ultraviolet visible spectrophotometer,which varies from 3.35 eV to 3.19 eV with the increase of x_(Cu) from 0 to 6.5%respectively.Urbach energy of the deposited thin films increases from 115 meV to 228 meV with the increase of x_(Cu) from 0 to 6.5% respectively.