Abstract
In this work, the structural, optical, and electrical properties of Mn-doped ZnO thin films were systematically investigated. High-quality films were deposited on glass substrates using a spray pneumatic technique at 420 °C. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that all films are polycrystalline with a hexagonal (wurtzite) structure and exhibit a strong (002) preferred orientation. Increasing Mn doping enhanced the film crystallinity, leading to a minimum crystallite size of 28.60 nm at 12% Mn. The films demonstrated good optical transparency in the visible range, with transmittance around 80%. As the Mn concentration increased from 3% to 12%, the optical band gap widened from 3.342 eV to 3.386 eV, while the Urbach energy reached a maximum value of 0.362 eV at 12% Mn, indicating increased structural disorder. Additionally, the electrical resistance of the films increased significantly from 1.13 × 106 Ω to 2.13 × 106 Ω with higher Mn doping. These results suggest that Mn-doped ZnO thin films are promising candidates for optoelectronic and gas sensor applications due to their tunable structural, optical, and electrical properties.
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