Influence of Ag doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO thin films synthesized by the sol-gel technique

Thin films of Ag-ZnO samples deposited on glass substrates with a different percentage of Ag content (1, 2, and 3 at%) were synthesized, at room temperature, by a dip-coating sol-gel method. The obtained samples are hexagonal wurtzite structure. The average grain size of deposits is about 5 nm. Up to 3 at%, c-axis lattice parameter shifts toward a higher value, which indicates that silver atoms replace Zn atoms in the crystal lattice. As shown by the DRX spectra, growth rate in the (101) direction is favored by the presence of silver ions in the ZnO. The layers present a homogeneous crystallites distribution, as we can remark it on SEM micrographs and exhibit a very low roughness according to AFM images. The entire samples exhibit a transmission value greater than 80 %, in the visible region, while the maximum is obtained for those doped at 2 at%. Energy band varies between 3.15 eV and 3.25 eV. The wider gap obtained is that of the ZnO layer doped with 2 at%. It is worth noting a strong UV emission observed on PL spectrum, performed at very low temperature (liquid nitrogen temperature), for silver doped ZnO compared to that of pure ZnO.