Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Morphological, Optical, and Electrical Characterizations

In this work, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized chemically by a sol gel method and their structural, morphological, and optical properties were characterized. The as-prepared ZnO nanoparticles were further transformed into the Cu/ZnO/Cr/Au heterostructure to investigate their electrical properties. The electrical characteristics of the heterostructure were determined at room temperature. The results showed that the obtained current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of Cu/ZnO/Cr/Au heterostructure resemble that of a photodiode with an ideality factor of 5.24. The forward resistance (under light of ≈570 nm wavelength) is calculated as 330 KΩ, while under darkness, the forward resistance is estimated as 5 KΩ. The obtained results confirmed that the developed heterostructured device is a sterling solicitant for light harvesting applications.