Photoluminescence and structural properties of zirconium dioxide thin films produced by RF sputtering technique

In this study, Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) thin films were produced by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering method on glass substrate at various pressures. The effects of growth pressure on the characteristics of grown Zirconia nanostructures were investigated by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Uv-Visible Spectroscopy and Photoluminescence Spectrometry (PL). XRD analysis showed that peaks of the monoclinic and tetragonal phases were more effective at low growth pressure, but different monoclinic phase peaks were present at increasing growth pressures. The surface morphological properties of the films such as average and maximum roughness, changed significantly with increasing growth pressure, and the maximum peak height first increased to 40 nm and then decreased to 20 nm. The optical transmittance of these thin films was examined in the 450–1100 nm wavelength range, covering both the visible and near-infrared spectral range, and it was found to be approximately 95% at 550 nm wavelength, and the optical band gaps were calculated to be approximately 3.26 eV by PL analyses. Uv-Visible spectroscopy analysis showed that the refractive index of the Zirconia films decreases from 2.09 to 1.79 with increasing wavelength of the incident photon. ZrO2 thin films are considered potential materials for transparent electronic devices because of their high transmittance value.