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Variations in electrical and physical properties of Al:ZnO films with preparation conditions

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Abstract

This study examined the effects of the RF magnetron sputtering power and substrate temperature on the electrical and physical properties of Al:ZnO (AZO) thin films deposited on GaAs(011) and Si(001) substrates. The stress on the films, which was estimated by determining the position of the (002) XRD diffraction peaks, varied from 5.28 GPa to 2.29 GPa for the films deposited between 100 and 250 W RF power. A similar trend was observed for the films prepared at substrate temperatures ranging from R.T. to 300 °C. The films prepared at 100 °C showed the least amount of stress and the largest concentration of charge carriers. The concentration of charge carriers produced from the presence of [AlZn] is closely related to the stress on the films. Post-deposition annealing in a reducing atmosphere had not only decreased the compressive stress, but had also formed oxygen vacancies. The increased concentration of charge carriers after annealing was attributed to the ionization of oxygen vacancies with a probability of 0.1±0.03.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, 402-751, Korea

    J. -I. Son & N. -H. Cho

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    J. -H. Shim

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  1. J. -I. Son
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  2. J. -H. Shim
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  3. N. -H. Cho
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Correspondence to N. -H. Cho.

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Son, J.I., Shim, J.H. & Cho, N.H. Variations in electrical and physical properties of Al:ZnO films with preparation conditions. Met. Mater. Int. 17, 99–104 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-011-0213-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-011-0213-1

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