Study the Effect of Copper (Cu) Doping on the Structure Properties of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Prepared by Using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD)

In this research the structural properties for pure zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films and ZnO doped with (6 and 9) % weight percentage of copper have been investigated. The thin films have prepared by using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique, they synthesized by using the following parameters; Nd:YAG laser (λ=1064 nm), repetition rate of (6 Hz), pulse duration of (10 ns), energy (100 mJ) and vacuum pressure (10^-5 mbar). The thin films have deposited on glass substrate at (250°C). The XRD shown the films were polycrystalline in hexagonal phase with peaks belong to cubic phase. The calculations from XRD data shown the crystallite size decreasing from (46.98-56.57) nm for pure zinc oxide to (34.70 and 44.49 nm) for copper doped ZnO with (6 and 9) % respectively, other structure parameters (bond length, dislocation density, lattice constants, strain) have been calculated. Investigated by AFM and SEM confirm that thin films have high homogeneity and the grains have rod-like structure. The EDX diagram didn’t show any other phase which indicate that the doping substitution type because closeness between Zn and Cu atoms.