STRUCTURAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF ZnO SYNTHESIZED BY TEMPERATURE GRADIENT THERMAL OXIDATION

In this work, a series of polycrystalline ZnO samples have been synthesized from Zn thin films deposited on Si(100) substrates by using thermal oxidation technique. The ZnO thin film samples grown by this technique were then characterized by a variety of structural and optical characterization tools. The results revealed that the use of novel annealing process i.e. the application of temperature gradient in the thermal treatment could enhance the structural and optical quality of the ZnO thin films significantly as compared to the normal annealing process, i.e. a fixed temperature under different durations. Apart from the improvement of structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films, another striking feature of this novel annealing process was the promotion of the growth of ZnO nanostructures.