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Preparation of highly transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO thin films and annealing effects on properties

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Abstract

Aluminum-doped ZnO (ZAO) thin films were deposited on fused quartz substrates by radio frequency sputtering in pure argon ambient at 450 °C. Effects of in situ annealing temperature and annealing atmosphere on microstructure, electrical and optical properties of ZAO films have been investigated. Results showed that as-grown film without annealing treatments attained lowest resistivity of 1.1 × 10−4Ω cm. And all films performed high average transmittance greater than 90% in visible region. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were utilized to characterize the microstructure properties of films. XRD results indicated that as-grown film had higher crystalline quality and larger grain size than annealed films. Al atoms replaced Zn efficiently to provide electrons stable in all samples. PL spectra revealed that high annealing temperature and oxygen atmosphere would generate more Zn vacancy (VZn) and oxide antisite defect (OZn), respectively and composition content results from XPS provided supports to this.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Innovation Fund project of State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices (CXJJ200901), Major National S&T Program (2009ZX01016-001), and Chinese Nature Science Fundamental Committee program (Grant No.: 50802012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, UESTC, Chengdu, 610054, China

    Xue-Ran Deng, Hong Deng, Min Wei & Jin-Ju Chen

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  1. Xue-Ran Deng
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  2. Hong Deng
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  3. Min Wei
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  4. Jin-Ju Chen
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Correspondence to Hong Deng.

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Deng, XR., Deng, H., Wei, M. et al. Preparation of highly transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO thin films and annealing effects on properties. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 23, 413–417 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-011-0482-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-011-0482-y

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