Abstract:Undoped ZnO films and (Co,Cu)-codoped ZnO (Zn0.90CoxCu0.1-xO, x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05) thin films were fabricated on glass substrates by sol-gel method. SEM reveals that there are uniform nanoparticles on the surfaces of pure and (Co, Cu)-codoped ZnO thin films, but better uniformity is achieved for higher Cu concentration. The XRD results reveal preferential orientation along the (002) direction for all ZnO samples. With the increase of Cu concentration, the lattice constant of doped films slightly decrease but the crystal grain size slightly increases. XPS results reveal the existence of Co2+ and Co3+ for Co, Cu2+ and Cu+ for Cu. The increase in the amount of doping Cu, accompanied by an increase of Cu2+ and Cu+ concentration, leads to an increaseof zinc vacancy and zinc interstitial. As such, strong ultraviolet emission peaks, blue double emission peaks and weak green emission peaks are observed in the photoluminescence spectra of all samples at room temperature.