The electrical and optical properties of AZO thin film under different post-annealing temperatures

In this study, the Aluminum element doped zinc oxide (Al:ZnO) thin film was deposited on the Corning glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering technology and annealing treatment. After sputtering, all thin films are then annealed on nitrogen atmosphere and temperature of 300, 500 and 550 °C, respectively. The structural, electric and optical characteristics were then investigated. All films illustrate strong (002) for ZnO and (335) for Al preferential orientation by using XRD analysis. The lower resistivity can be observed at nitrogen annealing and temperature of 400 °C. The transmittance property of AZO thin film exhibited an excellent transparency in the visible light range. The transmittance reached to nearly 81.4 % for all Al:ZnO film. It can be clearly observed that the grain size of AZO thin film is very uniform by utilizing SEM technology.