Effects of codoping of Al and Sb on structure and optical properties of ZnO nanorod ordered array thin films

An Al and Sb codoped ZnO nanorod ordered array thin film is deposited on a glass substrate with a ZnO seed layer by hydrothermal method. The XRD, SEM, TEM, and SAED results indicate that the thin film consists of nanorods growing in the direction vertical to the ZnO seed layer, and that the nanorods with an average diameter of 27.8 nm and length of 1.02 m consist of single crystalline wurtzite ZnO crystal growing along the [001] direction. Raman scattering analysis demonstrates that the Al and Sb codoped ZnO thin films with the concentrations of Al and Sb of 3.0 at%, 4.0 at%, 5.0 at%, 6.0 at% have Raman shifts of 3, 10, 14 and 12 cm-1 according to Raman shift 580 cm-1 of undoped ZnO nanorod thin film, respectively. Room temperature photoluminescence reveals that the emission intensity decreases at 545 nm and increases at 414 nm in ZnO film prepared by the codoping of Al and Sb. It is because the decrease of Oi and the increase of Zni are caused by the codoping of Al and Sb.