Non-thermal plasma effects on structural and optical properties of Cd doped ZnO thin films

Undoped ZnO and Cd doped ZnO thin films were deposited utilizing chemical spray pyrolysis. The effects of non-thermal plasma on the structural and optical properties were studied. XRD patterns indicate that all the deposited films were polycrystalline hexagonal structure, but the preferred orientation of un doped ZnO was (002), while for doped samples were orientated along (101). The effect of plasma exposure on crystal size, transmittance, absorption edge and optical energy gap were investigated. Results illustrate that the crystal size, transmittance and optical energy gap were decreased when doped samples exposure to plasma.