Fabrication and characterization of transparent conducting titanium-zinc oxide nanostructured thin films

Nano transparent conducting titanium-zinc oxide (Ti-ZnO) thin films were prepared on glass substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. The deposited films are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), four-probe meter and UV-visible spectrophotometer. The effects of Ti-doping content on the structural, optical and electrical properties of the films are investigated. The XRD results show that the obtained films are polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented in the (002) crystallographic direction. The structural and optoelectronic characteristics of the deposited films are subjected to the Ti-doping content. The Ti-ZnO sample fabricated with the Ti-doping content of 3% (weight percentage) possesses the best crystallinity and optoelectronic performance, with the highest degree of preferred (002) orientation of 99.87%, the largest crystallite size of 83.2 nm, the minimum lattice strain of 6.263×10^-4, the highest average visible transmittance of 88.8%, the lowest resistivity of 1.18×10^-3 Ω·cm and the maximum figure of merit (FOM) of 7.08×10³ Ω^-1·cm^-1. Furthermore, the optical bandgaps of the films are evaluated by extrapolation method and observed to be an increasing tendency with the increase of the Ti-doping content.