Study on photoelectric properties of Al-Eu codoped ZnO

•We perform a numerical evaluation on photoelectric properties of Al, Eu And Al-Eu doped ZnO structures.•We investigated band structure, density of states of Al, Eu And Al-Eu doped ZnO.•We detected the annealing temperature on effect of Al-Eu doped ZnO films.•We detected that Al-Eu doped ZnO annealed at 500 ℃ can obtain better photoelectric characteristics.•It implies a potential method for design photoelectric devices. [Display omitted] The photoelectric properties of Al-Eu doped ZnO were explored using first-principles and magnetron sputtering. Different models of Al, Eu and Al-Eu doped ZnO were constructed according to the doping energy, the simulation and experiment show the Al, Eu and Al-Eu, as donor defect, all are conducive to n-ZnO, moreover, Al-Eu codoped ZnO annealed at 500 °C has better film quality such as crystal structure and absorption. The results could provide certain theoretical and experiment reference for studying ZnO-based photoelectronics related to visible and near infrared region.