After hydrolyzing zinc acetate in methanol solution, spherical ZnO nanoparticles in the size range from about 2.5 to 5 nm were synthesized by maintaining a ZnO concentration of 0.02M. Compared to ZnO nanoparticles prepared via other methods, the particles prepared using our novel colloidal chemistry exhibit narrow size distribution and a high sensitivity to the surrounding environment. The structure and composition of the white powders precipitated from the colloidal solution can vary, depending on how the powder samples are prepared. Factors such as desorption and adsorption of methanol, binding of water and exposure to humid air have been studied to correlate to the structure and composition observed from the precipitated powder. Methanol desorption rate and excess KOH on the particle surface have played an important role in the structural changes. Furthermore, upon annealing, the white precipitate is recovered to wurtize ZnO. XRD and TEM are used to study the structural transformation of ZnO nanoparticles.

In recent years, even though the light output of GaN-related LED continues to increase, the brightness is still low compared to conventional lighting systems and it is necessary to further improve the light extraction of LEDs. In this study, the characteristics of LPD-SiO2 film and Al/SiO2/GaN MOS diode were investigated in advance of the formation of SiO2 micro structure for improving the oxide quality and controlling the deposition parameters. Temperature-difference method, post-annealing treatment, photochemical treatment, sulfurated treatment and etc. were used for the purposes of better properties of the MOS structure and the LED. To obtain higher light extraction efficiency of GaN LED, hemispherical SiO2 microlens was formed on the conventional and the flip-chip LEDs. The deposition mechanism had been developed to obtain the further improvements on the electrical and optical properties. The influences of epoxy encapsulation on the LEDs without and with microlens were also studied. Considering the refractive index of SiO2 is close to that of the epoxy, the enhancements of light extraction efficiency and angular optical distribution of GaN LED by using SiO2 microlens will be degraded after encapsulating. Therefore, we also tried to deposit ZnO film and rod on GaN LED by LPD method to maintain or further enhance the light extraction efficiency of GaN LEDs by the combining the micro structure and the epoxy encapsulation.

In this study, the ladder-type filters based on back-etched thin film bulk acoustic resonator (TFBAR) were fabricated with several patterns to investigate the influence on their frequency responses. The highly c-axis oriented ZnO films were deposited on silicon substrates by reactive RF magnetron sputtering. The optimal two-step deposition temperature for ZnO films is 100 ¢J, which is obtained by means of SEM AFM, and XRD analysis. According to the experimental results, it leads to good resonance responses as TFBAR filters are fabricated with the patterns of large resonance area, two stages and the ratio of shunt/series resonance area is equal to two. Herein, conventional thermal annealing (CTA) was adopted to improve the frequency responses of TFBAR filters. Because CTA treatment can release stress and improve surface roughness of ZnO and Pt films, it enhances the frequency responses of TFBAR filters. The optimal CTA treatment temperature for TFBAR filters is 400 ¢J. Finally, TFBAR filters show the good performances with insertion loss of -8.138 dB, band rejection of 10.9 dB and bandwidth of 37.125 MHz.

<p>The aim of this thesis work was to fabricate a hybrid LED using organic-inorganic ZnO materials. The goal of the project was to get an efficient white light emission from zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods active layer. Since most of the organic materials are good for hole mobility and most of the inorganic materials are good for electron mobility, it is possible to fabricate a high performance heterostructure electroluminescence device from organic-inorganic materials. This thesis work was an attempt towards fabricating such a high electroluminescence LED from hybrid materials in which polymer acts as a p-type material and ZnO acts as a n-type material. The growth mechanism of ZnO nanorods using low-temperature aqueous solution method has been studied and nanorods (NRs) growth was examined with scanning electron microscope (SEM). Optimum hole injection polymers have been studied. Finally, the fabricated device was characterized using parameter analyzer. The fabricated device worked as a diode i.e. it rectified current as expected and the desirable light emission has almost been achieved.</p>

<p>The structural quality of material (concentration and nature of defects) and optical properties (intensity and spectral emission range) of semiconductor materials are usually closely correlated. The idea of this work was to carry out a basic characterization of the structural (by X-ray diffraction technique and scanning electron microscopy) and optical (by micro photoluminescence measurements) properties of nanocrystalline ZnO samples and find a correlation. A number of ZnO samples prepared by atmospheric pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition at different regimes and on different substrates were investigated. According to the aim of the work the most important results can be summarized as following. The analysis of ZnO nanocrystalline structures deposited on Si (100) substrates have displayed a dependence of structural quality, morphology and microstructure as well as the optical spectral purity on the deposition temperature. The deposition at 500 ºС resulted in the massive of 1D ZnO nanopillars that demonstrated the best optical properties: a mono-emission in the ultraviolet spectral range was observed. Moreover, the results of microstructure investigation give a suggestion to the explanation of the ZnO nanopillars growth. The results obtained from ZnO on sapphire substrates revealed a moderate influence of the oxygen content during deposition on the structural quality of zinc oxide. However, a strong correlation between the oxygen content and deep-level emission intensity from ZnO nanostructures has been observed, which confirms the determinative role of oxygen for the defect emission from ZnO. It was shown that during the deposition of ZnO on specially prepared homoepitaxial template the substrate surface has not the major effect on the morphology of depositing ZnO structures. SiC was revealed to be the most appropriate substrate for hetero-deposition of textured ZnO nanostructures: the growth results in the massive of epitaxially related ZnO hexagons on the SiC (0001) plane. A number of factors - p-type conductivity of the substrate used, regular and uniform epitaxial growth of ZnO nanostructure, their excellent mono-spectral emission in short wavelength range of spectra, provides a strong background for further investigation of the electroluminescence properties of the obtained heterostructures and are of great importance for the progress of optoelectronics towards low-scaled elements.</p>

ZnO nanowire arrays (NWAs) and Al-doped ZnO (AZO) cathodes were applied in hybrid organic / inorganic solar cells for lower-cost solar energy. Parameters for the electrodeposition of ZnO NWAs and the fabrication of NWA-free baseline devices were systematically optimized using ITO as the cathodes. High efficiencies of up to 5.4% were achieved. Incorporation of the ZnO NWAs into the baseline devices significantly reduced their efficiencies due to possible shorting in the active layer. Devices fabricated using AZO cathodes were characterized. The AZO-based devices achieved efficiencies of up to ~4.8%, showing promising results for the application of AZO as an ITO alternative. Formation of numerous large nanoplatelets was observed during the electrodeposition of ZnO NWAs on AZO cathodes. The NWAs grown on AZO cathodes were also non-uniform. Future studies were proposed to address the issues with incorporation of ZnO NWAs in hybrid solar cells and their combination with AZO cathodes.

ZnO nanowire arrays (NWAs) and Al-doped ZnO (AZO) cathodes were applied in hybrid organic / inorganic solar cells for lower-cost solar energy. Parameters for the electrodeposition of ZnO NWAs and the fabrication of NWA-free baseline devices were systematically optimized using ITO as the cathodes. High efficiencies of up to 5.4% were achieved. Incorporation of the ZnO NWAs into the baseline devices significantly reduced their efficiencies due to possible shorting in the active layer. Devices fabricated using AZO cathodes were characterized. The AZO-based devices achieved efficiencies of up to ~4.8%, showing promising results for the application of AZO as an ITO alternative. Formation of numerous large nanoplatelets was observed during the electrodeposition of ZnO NWAs on AZO cathodes. The NWAs grown on AZO cathodes were also non-uniform. Future studies were proposed to address the issues with incorporation of ZnO NWAs in hybrid solar cells and their combination with AZO cathodes.

Excitonic photovoltaic devices, including organic, hybrid organic/inorganic, and dye-sensitized solar cells, are attractive alternatives to conventional inorganic solar cells due to their potential for low cost and low temperature solution-based processing on flexible substrates in large scale. Though encouraging, they are currently limited by the efficiency from not yet optimized structural and material parameters and poor overall knowledge regarding the fundamental details. This dissertation aims to achieve improved performance of hybrid solar cells by enhancing material property and designing new device architecture. The study begins with the addition of XD-grade single-walled carbon nanotube (XDSWNT) into poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) to improve the current density. By having a weight ratio of XDSWNT and P3HT equaled to 0.1:1, short-circuit current was quadrupled from 0.12 mA cm-2 to 0.48 mA cm-2 and solar cell efficiency was tripled from 0.023% to 0.07%, compared to devices with pure P3HT as a hole transport material. Secondly, a significant improvement in device efficiency with 250 nm long ZnO nanorod arrays as photoanodes has been achieved by filling the interstitial voids of the nanorod arrays with ZnO nanoparticles. The overall power conversion efficiency increased from 0.13% for a nanorod-only device to 0.34% for a device with combined nanoparticles and nanorod arrays. The higher device efficiency in solid-state DSSCs with hybrid nanorod/nanoparticle photoanodes is originated from both large surface area provided by nanoparticles for dye adsorption and efficient charge transport provided by the nanorod arrays to reduce the recombinations of photogenerated carriers. Followed by the novel layer-by-layer self-assembly deposition process, the hybrid photoanode study was extended to the longer ZnO nanorod arrays. The best performance, 0.64%, was achieved when the thickness of the photoanodes equaled to 1.2 ?m. Finally, the photovoltaic devices were modified by adding ZnO nanoarpticles into P3HT to increase interfacial area between ZnO and P3HT. The efficiency was enhanced from 0.18% to 0.45% when the ZnO nanorod arrays were 625 nm in length. Our successful design of the device morphology significantly contributes to the performance of solid-state hybrid solar cells.

The aim of this work was the study of sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) film deposition, the optimisation and characterisation of film properties and applications as a sensing material. In recent years there has been increased interest in ZnO in terms of its potential applications as piezoelectric films (or coatings) for surface acoustic wave devices (SAW), for IR and visible light emitting devices and UV sensing. The electrical, optoelectronic and photochemical properties of undoped ZnO have resulted in its use for solar cells, transparent electrodes and blue/UV light emitting devices. ZnO is a unique material that exhibits both semiconducting and piezoelectric properties. In the past decade, numerous studies have been made on both production and application of one-dimensional ZnO. Compared with other semiconductor materials, ZnO has a higher exciton binding energy of 60 meV, which gives it a high potential for room temperature light emission, is more resistant to radiation, and is multifunctional as it has piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and ferromagnetic properties. ZnO-based semiconductor and nanowire devices are also promising for the integration on a single chip. So far, the various applications of ZnO nanomaterials such as biosensors, UV detectors and field emission displays are being developed. In this work, ZnO was sputtered using both DC and RF magnetron sputtering. Reactive DC sputtering was performed with a Zn target and oxygen plasma, while RF sputtering was performed with a ZnO target. Comparisons between films deposited under different conditions on different substrates were employed to assess film properties. Several experiments were performed on as-grown films as a control for subsequence treatments, other samples were post-annealed in N2 at temperatures up to 1200 ºC, the highest reported annealing temperature and the quality of the deposited films was determined using PL, RBS, XRD, SEM and AFM. The piezoelectric properties (d33) of selected films were determined using single beam interferometry, double beam interferometry, and for the first time, using piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM). It was found that DC sputtered films yielded better quality films as evident by PL and XRD analysis and higher piezoelectric response than RF sputtered films. Films deposited using DC sputtering on Si substrates and followed by post-annealing in N2 atmosphere at 1100 ºC showed the highest recorded PL response, while films deposited on sapphire showed good PL response without any need for post-annealing. The d33 of selected films were determined first using single beam interferometry and inflated results were reported, caused by sample bending/buckling. Double beam interferometry results confirmed d33 values in the range of 3.3 to 4.3 pm/V. Piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM) which is based on AFM, was employed to investigate the local electromechanical (piezoelectric) properties of the ZnO films. UV sensing was demonstrated using Schottky contacts and SAW devices on ZnO deposited on Si and post-annealed. In the first instance, Schottky contacts were fabricated on the films and the I V characteristics determined under exposure of various light sources. The current increased up to one order of magnitude during exposure with a halogen light bulb, which is known to emit energy in the UV band. Another experiment was performed using surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices which were fabricated on the films and interrogated using a network analyser. These SAW devices contain an interdigitated transducer and two reflectors each. The signals sent back from the two reflectors were analysed under various light conditions and gave lower readings during exposure to UV light. In order to enable device fabrication of UV sensors a novel “super coating”, achieving both optimised PL and d33 properties, was designed, fabricated and tested. The structure is based on optically transparent Quartz substrate. During this experiment the first DC sputtered coat was optimised to have high PL response by post-annealing at 900 ºC. Afterwards, the second coat was left as-sputtered in order to have highly piezoelectric properties. Preliminary analysis using XRD showed two peaks corresponding to the annealed and not annealed coat, which suggest the super coating combines the properties of the two individual films. This configuration has the potential to be used as UV sensing material and as piezoelectric substrate for SAW devices.

CIGS thin film solar cells usually include a thin layer of intrinsic zinc oxide (i-ZnO) deposited on a CdS buffer layer by sputtering. However an interest has grown in using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) instead. Hence, the aim of this thesis was to study how well CVD i-ZnO performs on a CdS buffer layer in a CIGS solar cell and how the properties of the layer can be controlled when using a hot-wall CVD reactor with diethylzinc and water as precursors. The process was characterized through depositions on glass substrates and was then successfully implemented in solar cell devices. The main influences of temperature, thickness and precursor flows on resistivity, optical band gap and film structure were mapped out. The analysis methods used included X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), four point probe resistivity measurements, mechanical profilometry and absorption spectrophotometry. In addition, the solar cell devices were characterized using external quantum efficiency (EQE) and current-voltage (IV) measurements. It was found that the CVD process was sensitive to the condition of the CdS surface, which resulted in a large distribution of shunted cells when grown on aged CdS. Unexpected trends in open-circuit voltage and fill factor were found. Both these factors increased when the growth temperature was decreased, resulting in higher conversion efficiencies. Compared to i-ZnO deposited by an in-house baseline sputtering process, the CVD process resulted in cells with higher short-circuit current due to higher EQE in the short-wavelength region. It was shown that the CVD process used is capable of producing solar cell devices whose performances contest those of cells manufactured with sputtered i-ZnO.