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Structural and electrical properties of Sb-doped p-type ZnO thin films fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering

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Abstract

We investigated the Sb-doping effects on ZnO thin film using RF (radio frequency) magnetron sputtering and RTA (rapid thermal annealing). The structural and electrical properties of the thin films were measured by X-ray diffraction, SEM (scanning electron microscope), and Hall effect measurement. Thin films were deposited at a high temperature of 800°C in order to improve the crystal quality and were annealed for a short time of only 3 min. The structural properties of undoped and Sb-doped films were considerably improved by increasing oxygen content in the Ar-O2 gas mixture. Sb-doping also significantly decreased the electron concentration, making the films p-type. However, the crystallinity and surface roughness of the films degraded and the mobility decreased while increasing Sb-doping content, likely as a result of the formation of smaller grain size. From this study, we observed the transition to the p-type behavior at 1.5 at.% of Sb. The thin film deposited with this doping level showed a hole concentration of 4.412 × 1017 cm−3 and thus is considered applicable to p-type ZnO thin film.

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Kim, D.H., Cho, N.G., Kim, K.S. et al. Structural and electrical properties of Sb-doped p-type ZnO thin films fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering. J Electroceram 22, 82–86 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10832-007-9393-y

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