Parametric investigation on Laser-Induced Forward Transfer of ZnO nanostructure on flexible PET sheet for optoelectronic application

Abstract ZnO nanostructures gained much attention for the micro/nano devices fabrication, but it is facing challenges in the deposition on the flexible substrate for optoelectronics applications. In the present work, Laser-Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT) was deployed for the deposition of the ZnO nanostructures on the flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet using Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) sacrificial layer. The process window was developed for the laser parameters in COMSOL Multiphysics simulation for estimating the temperature distribution. Three different laser wavelengths (355 nm, 532 nm, and 1064 nm) and laser fluence ranging from 100 to 550 mJ/cm2 were used in the numerical simulation. Subsequent to the numerical simulation, the LIFT process was deployed at three different laser fluence (100, 250, and 550 mJ/cm2) with 355 nm wavelength for the transfer of ZnO nanorods. SEM images reveal that the higher fluence (550 mJ/cm2) melts the donor materials and degrades the quality of deposition. During the experiments, the time-resolved imaging measured the velocity of the deposited materials and observed that the velocity of 960 m/s, 200 m/s, and 90 m/s is achieved at a laser fluence of 550, 250 and 100 mJ/cm2, respectively. The XRD analysis and PL analysis show better structural and optical properties of deposited ZnO nanostructures as compared to previously published work available in the literature.