Characterization of nanostructured features of thin films of zinc oxide grown by sol-gel spin process

Thin films of ZnO find application in various sensing devices. We present here the results of our studies on thin films of ZnO grown by sol-gel spin process. Zinc acetate and zinc nitrate were used as precursor materials for preparing the sols. The films grown by these precursors show different types of morphologies. The films grown using zinc acetate show much smoother topographical features than those grown using zinc nitrate as precursor materials. On the other hand, using the zinc nitrate as the precursor, we have observed the nanosized needles of ZnO. These needles could form the basis of fabrication of piezoelectric fine tips for a practical application in scanning tunneling spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy and other sensors