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CuO composite thin films with and without Zn-doping are deposited onto glass substrates by the SILAR method. All the films are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), UV-Vis spectrophotometry, temperature dependent dc conductivity, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. SEM results show that the particle size decreases from 27 to 16 nm with increasing Zn-doping. EDX analysis evidences the amount of Zn in CuO films, which increases with increasing Zn concentration in the growth solutions. Transmittance, optical band gap, and activation energy values of the films are found to be increasing from the UV-Vis and temperature dependent dc conductivity measurements with increasing Zn-doping. It also is found from the XRD patterns that mean crystallite size of the films decreases from 18.94 to 13.70 nm with increasing Zn-doping. Moreover, increase in Zn concentration results peak shifts to lower 2 θ values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of cobalt-doped nanostructured CuO thin films using the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method is presented. It is found that Co doping considerably influences the structural (X-ray diffraction (XRD)), morphological (finite-element-scanning electron microscopy (FESEM)), and optical (ultraviolet/visible (UV/vis.) and Raman) properties of the films. XRD experiments evidence that the crystallite size of the films decreased with increasing Co doping. FESEM images reveal that the grain size of the nanostructures decreased with increasing doping concentration. By UV/vis. analysis, it is found that Co doping has a decreasing effect on band gap energy. The broadening and downshift of the Raman peaks are mainly attributed to the quantum confinement effect of CuO nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]