Investigation of Structural, Morphological, Electronic and Optical Properties of Au Irradiated Ni Doped ZnO Thin Films prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition

In this research work, effect of Au ions irradiated Zn1-xNixO (with x = 0.0, 0.02, 0.04 and 0.06) thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition on Si substrate has been investigated. The influence of ions implantation on structural, optical, electronic and morphological properties of the thin films have been examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. XRD results confirm the existence of single phase hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO in all the thin films. The preferred orientation were observed along (002) plane. It has also been analyzed that due to co-doping of Au ions and Ni ions, the peaks shifts towards the shorter angle, as a result, lattice expansion has been identified. UV-Vis measurements reveal that the band gap decreases up to x = 0.02 and 0.04 Ni concentration, after that it starts increasing at x= 0.06. XANES analysis reveals the presence of Zn, Ni and O at different edges, K and L edges. FESEM results reveal that the surface morphologies are scarcely changed.