Effect of substrate temperature on the stability of transparent conducting cobalt doped ZnO thin films
Fabrication and Characterizations of the Semiconductors ZnO:Co thin films

Transparent conducting Co doped ZnO thin films have been fabricated by Ultrasonic spray. The thin films were deposited at three different substrate temperatures of 300, 350 and 400 ℃. The obtained films had a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a strong (002) preferred orientation. The maximum crystallite size value of the film deposited at 350 ℃ is 55.46 nm. Spectrophotometer (UV-vis) of a Co doped ZnO film deposited at 350 ℃ shows an average transmittance of about 90%. The band gap energy increased from 3.351 to 3.362 eV when the substrate temperature increased from 300 to 350 ℃. The electrical conductivity of the films deposited at 300, 350 and 400 ℃ were 7.424, 7.547 and 6.743 (Ω·cm)-1 respectively. The maximum activation energy value of the films at 350 ℃ was 1.28 eV, indicating that the films exhibit a n-type semiconducting nature.