Effect of annealing temperature on electrical and nano-structural properties of sol–gel derived ZnO thin films

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films have been prepared on silicon substrates by sol–gel spin coating technique with spinning speed of 3,000 rpm. The films were annealed at different temperatures from 200 to 500 °C and found that ZnO films exhibit different nanostructures at different annealing temperatures. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the ZnO films convert from amorphous to polycrystalline phase after annealing at 400 °C. The metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitors were fabricated using ZnO films deposited on pre-cleaned silicon (100) substrates and electrical properties such as current versus voltage (I–V) and capacitance versus voltage (C–V) characteristics were studied. The electrical resistivity decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The oxide capacitance was measured at different annealing temperatures and different signal frequencies. The dielectric constant and the loss factor (tanδ) were increased with increase of annealing temperature.