Influence of substrate temperature on structure, stoichiometry, and energy band gap of Zn1-xMgxO thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

Transition metal oxides have captivated extensive courtesy owing to their excellent light harvesting abilities in UV-region for production of opto-electronic devices. Herein, we report the deposition of Zn1 - xMgxO thin film by pulse laser deposition (PLD) technique. Subsequently, the influence of substrate temperature on deposited thin film has been studied in detail. All the deposited thin films have highly crystallographic c-oriented hexagonal (wurtzite) structure with (002) most prominent orientation. Systematic study on variation of stoichiometry of Zn1 - xMgxO thin film on changing substrate temperature has been accomplished. Significant improvement in the crystallinity of deposited film has been observed as the substrate temperature increases. Energy band gap value of Zn1 - xMgxO thin film has been engineered significantly from 3.34 to 3.69 eV by changing the substrate temperature. Finally, the present findings on tunability of crystallinity and energy band gap find huge development in producing high-performance opto-electronic devices.