Influence of Mn₂O₃ concentrations on the structural and optical characterization of (ZnO:CuO) thin films prepared by laser technique

This paper deals with the effect of manganese (III)oxide (Mn₂O₃) on the structure and optical properties of (ZnO 0.6:CuO 0.4) thin films. Films were deposited at room temperature on glass substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique using Nd: YAG laser (wavelength 1064 nm) at a fluence of 500 mJ/pulse, and 300 laser shots. Atomic force microscope (AFM) is a useful tool for the analysis of morphological features of the films from which important information is obtained. The optical results showed that the films have strong absorption in the visible region, which increased further on addition of Mn₂O₃ up to a weight ratio of 0.6 in (ZnO 0.6: CuO 0.4). The optical band gap of un-mixed (ZnO 0.6: CuO 0.4) was found to be 2.4 eV which decreased gradually up to 2 eV when mixed with Mn₂O₃ with the weight ratio 0.8. The optical constants such as extinction coefficient, refractive index, and dielectric constants are also studied. The electrical properties including the Hall effect of the films were investigated, and it was found that all the prepared thin films were n-type and the mobility, µ increased with increasing Mn2O3. The current density–voltage (J-V) characteristics showed that the maximum efficiency was 1.19% with Voc of 0.45 V and 0.7 V, Jsc of 4.1 mA and 2.7 mA at F.F of 0.64 and 0.63 at the P intensity = 100 mW/cm.