Study of energy band discontinuity in NiZnO/ZnO heterostructure using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

A heterostructure based on ZnO and Ni doped ZnO (NiZnO) thin films has been prepared on c-plane sapphire substrate by pulsed laser deposition technique. X-ray photo electron spectroscopy has been utilized to study the energy band discontinuities, i.e., valence band offset ( Δ E v ) and conduction band offset ( Δ E c ) at the interface of NiZnO and ZnO thin films. A type-II band alignment is identified at the interface of prepared heterostructure from the computed data, which is attractive for the realization of efficient optoelectronic devices.