Fabrication of high quality zinc-oxide layers through electrohydrodynamic atomization

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a useful material in the fabrication of many electronic devices because of its wide band-gap, excellent transparency and high electron mobility. Thin films of ZnO have been fabricated where an alcosol solution containing 7 wt.% ZnO nano-particles was synthesized and subjected to controlled flow through a metal capillary exposed to an electric field at the ambient temperature to generate an electrohydrodynamic jet, which subsequently disintegrated into droplets thereby depositing a uniform thin film of zinc oxide on the glass substrates with an average thickness of 115 nm at a constant substrate speed of 0.25 mm/s. Pure and perfectly uniform transparent films with an average transmittance of 88% have been deposited with wurtzite crystal structure and an electrical resistivity of approximately 64 Omega.cm. (c) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.