Structural and electrical characterization of p-type sodium-doped zinc oxide thin films deposited via spray pyrolysis

Abstract

This paper aims to fabricate sodium-doped zinc oxide (NaZnO) thin films and investigate the structural and electrical properties. Samples were confirmed to have p-type conductivity by hot-point probe method, indicating that most of the Zn²⁺ ions were successfully substituted by Na⁺ ions. Thermal annealing was performed to study the effects of post-growth treatment across varying doping concentrations. Samples were characterized using X-ray diffractometer to determine the crystallite size and microstrain. Resistance for as-grown and annealed samples was determined by performing I-V measurements. The results showed improvement on annealed samples for both crystallinity and electrical properties, specifically on 5% and 15% NaZnO. This analysis demonstrates that dopant concentration and thermal annealing are important factors in enhancing the p-type properties of NaZnO.