Nano-coating and Testing; a step towards the improvement of CSP reflectors for less intensive maintenance both in terms of labor and water

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Asmae Khaldoun

 

ABSTRACT:

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In this work, ZnO thin films are grown on glass substrates by mean of the Ion Layer Gas Reaction (Spray-ILGAR) technique.  The prepared layers are analyzed using characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Ultraviolet-Visible-Near Infrared spectroscopy.  The experimental results show that the transmittance of all ZnO films is above 80% in the near infrared range.  The ab initio calculations were conducted based on the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method, which has been performed to solve the Kohn-Sham equations within the Density Functional Theory (DFT), and was implemented in WIEN2k package. The DFT calculations were conducted using the modified Becke Johnson (mBJ) potential.  The effect of thickness on the optical, morphological and structural properties of ZnO thin films was investigated, and an increase in the optical band gap was observed with increasing thicknesses, which is mainly due to the contribution of compressive strain in the c-direction, and has been confirmed by first principle ab initio calculations.

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