Evaluation of Structural and Optical Properties of Mn-Doped ZnO Thin Films Synthesized by Sol-Gel Technique
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ONDUCTOR nanocrystalline structures have attracted great interest in view of their photonic and electronic device applications.[1] In recent years, widespread utilization of these metal oxides has led to the increased interest in respect of various applications of these semiconductor thin films. In oxides, Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is an attractive candidate for optoelectronic applications, and being a member of II-VI semiconductor family with a large excitation binding energy (60 meV) and a wide band gap (3.37 eV).[2] ZnO, it also enjoys a unique position among materials owing to its superior and diverse properties such as piezoelectricity, chemical stability, biocompatibility, optical transparency in the visible region, high voltage-current nonlinearity, large bond strength, etc.[3] These characteristics of ZnO have shown important properties for some special applications such as solar cells,[4–8] surface acoustic wave guides,[9] sensors,[10–12] transparent electrodes,[13] UV laser,[14] ultraviolet light emitting, and laser diodes.[15] On the other hand, dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) have attracted significant attention for the past several decades because of their combination of usual EYU¨P F. KESKENLER, Research Assistant Dr., is with the Department of Physics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Recep Tayyip Erdog˘an University, 53100 Rize, Turkey, Contact e-mail: eyupfahri. [email protected] SEYDI DOG˘AN, Professor Dr., and BEKIR GU¨RBULAK, Assistant Professor Dr., are with the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Atatu¨rk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey. GU¨VEN TURGUT, Research Assistant, is with the Department of Physics, Kazım K. Education Faculty, Atatu¨rk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey. Manuscript submitted November 15, 2011. Article published online August 15, 2012 5088—VOLUME 43A, DECEMBER 2012
semiconductor features and a polarized electron spin state associated with a replaced transition-metal ion.[16] Currently, much experimental study and theoretical research have especially focused on studying the properties of DMSs based on ZnO doped with transition metal ions such as Co and Mn. Magnetic ions (Mn2+, Co2+, V2+, Fe2+, Cr2+, etc.) should occupy interstitial sites or substitute some of the metallic atoms in the semiconductor lattice to produce a magnetic semiconductor. The mechanism leading to room temperature ferromagnetism in Mn-doped ZnO (MZO) is not fully established, and there are many contradictory experimental observations.[17] However, it is stated that oxygen has a tendency to pull electrons away from other atoms in the compounds resulting in a strong electrical field occurring at the interatomic scale. These fields can give rise to substantial correlations, which exhibit dominant ferromagnetic behavior between the electrons of one atom and those of its neighbors.[18] Thus, many experimental groups have attempted to grow ZnO semiconductors doped with ferromagnetic transition metals (Mn, Co, V, Fe, Cr, and Ni)[16] to understand the mechanism of ferromagnetism fully. The MZO (ZnO:Mn) thin fi
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