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Properties of boron-doped ZnO thin films deposited by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures

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Abstract

By pulsed DC magnetron sputtering, boron-doped ZnO (BZO) thin films were deposited on normal glass substrates at different substrate temperatures. The effect of substrate temperature on the properties of the BZO films was systematically investigated. Based on XRD data, the crystallization behaviors and the grain growth kinetics of the BZO films were analyzed. It was found that the substrate temperature of 300 °C is a critical temperature in the grain growth process of the BZO films. That is to say, the grain growth mechanism of the BZO films was different at the substrate temperature range of exceeding 300 °C or not. The morphological, electrical, and optical properties of the BZO films were studied by atomic force microscopy, Hall effect measurement system, and UV–Vis transmission spectroscopy, respectively. With increasing the substrate temperature, the carrier concentration and the carrier mobility increase, and the minimum resistivity (3.4 × 10−3 Ω cm) is observed at the substrate temperature of 400 °C. Moreover, the transmittance for every film is over 90 % in the visible range, and the optical band edge of the BZO films exhibits blueshift with increasing the substrate temperature.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51302024, 51002018 and 51472039), Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in University (Grant No. LJQ20122038), Higher Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program (Grant No. 20122124110004), Project of Education Department of Liaoning Province (Grant No. L2013179), Project of Open Research Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Float Glass (Grant No. KF1301-01), Dalian Science and Technology Plan Project (Grant No. 2011A15GX025), Dalian Science and Technology Plan Project (No. 2010J21DW008) and Qinghai province science and technology project (No. 2012-Z-701).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian, 116028, People’s Republic of China

    B. Wen, C. Q. Liu, N. Wang, H. L. Wang, S. M. Liu, W. W. Jiang, W. Y. Ding & W. P. Chai

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    W. D. Fei

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, People’s Republic of China

    W. D. Fei

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  1. B. Wen
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  2. C. Q. Liu
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Correspondence to C. Q. Liu or W. D. Fei.

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Wen, B., Liu, C.Q., Wang, N. et al. Properties of boron-doped ZnO thin films deposited by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering at different substrate temperatures. Appl. Phys. A 121, 1147–1153 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-015-9479-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-015-9479-3

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