Mn-doped ZnO transparent conducting films deposited by DC magnetron sputtering

Mn-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Mn) thin films with low resistivity and relatively high transparency were firstly prepared on glass substrate by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Influence of film thickness on the properties of ZnO:Mn films was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) show that all the deposited films are polycrystalline with a hexagonal structure and have a preferred orientation along the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. As the thickness increases from 144 to 479 nm, the crystallite size increases while the electrical resistivity decreases. However, as the thickness increases from 479 to 783 nm, the crystallite size decreases and the electrical resistivity increases. When film thickness is 479 nm, the deposited films have the lowest resistivity of 2.1 × 10^− 4 Ω cm and a relatively high transmittance of above 84% in the visible range.     

Cu2O thin films deposited by reactive direct current magnetron sputtering

The Cu₂O thin films were prepared on quartz substrate by reactive direct current magnetron sputtering. The influences of oxygen partial pressure and gas flow rate on the structures and properties of deposited films were investigated. Varying oxygen partial pressure leads to the synthesis of Cu₂O, Cu₄O₃ and CuO with different microstructures. At a constant oxygen partial pressure of 6.6 × 10^− 2 Pa, the single Cu₂O films can be obtained when the gas flow rate is below 80 sccm. The as-deposited Cu₂O thin films have a very high absorption in the visible region resulting in the visible-light induced photocatalytic activity.     

Tungsten-doped ZnO transparent conducting films deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering

Highly conducting and transparent thin films of tungsten-doped ZnO (ZnO:W) were prepared on glass substrates by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering at low temperature. The effect of film thickness on the structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO:W films was investigated. All the deposited films are polycrystalline with a hexagonal structure and have a preferred orientation along the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The electrical resistivity first decreases with film thickness, and then increases with further increase in film thickness. The lowest resistivity achieved was 6.97 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm for a thickness of 332 nm with a Hall mobility of 6.7 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and a carrier concentration of 1.35 × 10²¹ cm⁻³. However, the average transmittance of the films does not change much with an increase in film thickness, and all the deposited films show a high transmittance of approximately 90% in the visible range.     

Structural characterization of ZnO thin films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering

In this work we present recent results on ZnO thin films grown by dc magnetron sputtering technique at room temperature (RT), focusing on structural and surface characterization using conventional cross-section transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) and high resolution cross section transmission electron microscopy (HRXTEM) in an attempt to understand the thickness influence on film, mechanical and optical properties as well as photoreduction/oxidation conductivity changes. Films were found to be polycrystalline with a columnar mode of growth. For films with thickness over 100 nm, XTEM and HRTEM analysis evidenced the presence of a small grains transition layer near interface with the substrate, feature which plays an important role in ZnO thin films for gas sensing application. The control of such structural parameters is proved to be critical for the improvement of their gas sensing performance.     

Influence of annealing temperature on the structural, mechanical and wetting property of TiO2 films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering

TiO₂ films have been deposited on silicon substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering of a pure Ti target in Ar/O₂ plasma. The TiO₂ films deposited at room temperature were annealed for 1 h at different temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 800 °C. The structural, morphological, mechanical properties and the wetting behavior of the as deposited and annealed films were obtained using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nanoindentation and water contact angle (CA) measurements. The as deposited films were amorphous, and the Raman results showed that anatase phase crystallization was initiated at annealing temperature close to 400 °C. The film annealed at 400 °C showed higher hardness than the film annealed at 600 °C. In addition, the wettability of film surface was enhanced with an increase in annealing temperature from 400 °C to 800 °C, as revealed by a decrease in water CA from 87° to 50°. Moreover, the water CA of the films obtained before and after UV light irradiation revealed that the annealed films remained more hydrophilic than the as deposited film after irradiation.     

Highly conductive alumina-added ZnO ceramic target prepared by reduction sintering and its effects on the properties of deposited thin films by direct current magnetron sputtering

To obtain a suitable sputtering target for depositing transparent conducting Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films by using direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering, this study investigates the possibility of using atmosphere controlled sintering of Al₂O₃ mixed ZnO powders to prepare highly conductive ceramic AZO targets. Experimental results show that a gas mixture of Ar and CO could produce a sintered target with resistivity in the range of 2.23 × 10^− 4 Ω cm. The fairly low resistivity was mainly achieved by the formation of both aluminum substitution (Al_Zn) and oxygen vacancy (V_O), thus greatly increasing the carrier concentration. Compared to usual air sintered target, the thin film deposited by the Ar + CO sintered target exhibited lower film resistivity and more uniform spatial distribution of resistivity. A film resistivity as low as 6.8 × 10^− 4 Ω cm was obtained under the sputtering conditions of this study.     

Effects of heat treatment on properties of ITO films prepared by rf magnetron sputtering

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were deposited on glass substrates by rf magnetron sputtering using a ceramic target (In₂O₃-SnO₂, 90-10 wt%) without extra heating. The post annealing was done in air and in vacuum, respectively. The effects of annealing on the structure, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties of the ITO films were studied. The results show that the increase of the annealing temperature improves the crystallinity of the films, increases the surface roughness, and improves the optical and electrical properties. The transmittance of the films in visible region is increased over 90% after the annealing process in air or in vacuum. The resistivity of the films deposited is about 8.125×10⁻⁴ Ω cm and falls down to 2.34×10⁻⁴ Ω cm as the annealing temperature is increased to 500°C in vacuum. Compared with the results of the ITO films annealed in air, the properties of the films annealed in vacuum is better.     

Low-temperature deposited Titanium-doped zinc oxide thin films on the flexible PET substrate by DC magnetron sputtering

Transparent conducting Titanium-doped zinc oxide thin films (TZO) with high transparency and relatively low resistivity were firstly deposited on water-cooled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates at room temperature by DC magnetron sputtering. The microstructure, optical and electrical properties of the deposited films were investigated and discussed. The XRD patterns show that all the deposited films are polycrystalline with a hexagonal structure and have a preferred orientation along the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The electrical resistivity decreases when the sputtering power increases from 45 W to 60 W. However, as the puttering power continue increases from 60 W to 90 W, the electrical resistivity increases rapidly. When the puttering power is 60 W, the films deposited on PET substrate have the lowest resistivity of 4.72 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm and a relatively high transmittance of above 92% in the visible range.     

Effect of post-annealing on the optoelectronic properties of ZnO:Ga films prepared by pulsed direct current magnetron sputtering

In this study, highly conductive films of ZnO:Ga (GZO) were deposited by pulsed direct current magnetron sputtering to explore the effect of post-annealing on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the films. XRD patterns showed that after annealing, the intensity of c-axis preferentially oriented GZO (002) peak was apparently improved. GZO film annealing at 300 °C for 0.5 h exhibits lowest resistivity of 1.36 × 10^− 4 Ω cm. In addition, the film shows good optical transmittance of 88% with optical band gap, 3.82 eV. Carrier concentration and optical band gap both decreases with the annealing temperature. Besides, the near-infrared transmittance at 1400 nm is below 5%, while the reflectivity at 2400 nm is as high as 70%.     

Influence of annealing on thermoelectric properties of bismuth telluride films grown via radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Bismuth telluride films were prepared via radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Mixed powders with different composition were used as sputtering targets. Influence of the annealing temperature on surface topography, crystal structure and thermoelectric properties of the films has been investigated. It was found that the grain size increased and the surface roughness decreased with a rising annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed an improved crystallization after the annealing, and that crystal planes perpendicular to c-axis became prominent. High temperature treatments resulted in a decrease of Seebeck coefficient and an increase of electrical conductivity. The highest power factor was obtained after being annealed at 300 °C.     

室温直流磁控溅射制备ITO膜及光电性能研究

室温条件下,在玻璃衬底上,采用直流磁控溅射法制备了ITO膜.研究了溅射压强,氧流量和溅射功率等工艺参数对薄膜光电性能的影响.结果表明当Ar流量为44.2 sccm和溅射时间20 min等参数不变时,溅射气压0.7 Pa,氧流量0.62 sccm和溅射功率130 W为最佳工艺条件.并得到了电阻率5.02×10-4 Ω·cm,在可见光区平均透过率80%以上ITO薄膜.     

The effect of annealing on Al-doped ZnO films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering method for transparent electrodes

In this study, transparent conducting Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films with a thickness of 150 nm were prepared on Corning glass substrates by the RF magnetron sputtering with using a ZnO:Al (Al₂O₃: 2 wt.%) target at room temperature. This study investigated the effects of the post-annealing temperature and the annealing ambient on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the AZO films. The films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 300 to 500 °C in steps of 100 °C by using rapid thermal annealing equipment in oxygen. The thicknesses of the films were observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM); their grain size was calculated from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra using the Scherrer equation. XRD measurements showed the AZO films to be crystallized with strong (002) orientation as substrate temperature increases over 300 °C. Their electrical properties were investigated by using the Hall measurement and their transmittance was measured by UV-vis spectrometry. The AZO film annealed at the 500 °C in oxygen showed an electrical resistivity of 2.24 × 10^− 3 Ω cm and a very high transmittance of 93.5% which were decreased about one order and increased about 9.4%, respectively, compared with as-deposited AZO film.     

Effect of annealing treatment on structural, electrical, and optical properties of Ga-doped ZnO thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering

The effect of annealing on structural, electrical, and optical properties of Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering was investigated in air and nitrogen. GZO films are polycrystalline with a preferred 002 orientation. The resistivities of annealed films are larger than the as-deposited. The transmittance in the near IR region increases greatly and the optical band gap decreases after annealing. The photoluminescence spectra is composed of a near band edge emission and several deep level emissions (DLE) which are dominated by a blue emission. After annealing, these DLEs are enhanced evidently.     

Effect of deposition geometry on structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO:Al films by magnetron sputtering

Al-doped ZnO films were prepared by the dc magnetron sputtering technique on Suprasil-1 substrates at a temperature of 470 K. Plasma-emission monitoring was used to stabilize oxygen flow to the deposition chamber. The effect of substrate position during deposition on the structural, electrical and optical properties of the films was investigated. It was found that preparation of low-resistance films with high optical transmission over the visible region is possible under condition of low plasma effects on the growing film.     

Indium zinc oxide semiconductor thin films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature

Amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin films were prepared on glass substrates by dc magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The resistivity of IZO films could be controlled between 3.8 × 10⁻³ and 2.5 × 10⁶ Ω cm by varying the oxygen partial pressure during deposition, while keep the average transmittance over 83%. With IZO films as channel layers, whose surface root-mean-square roughness was less than 1 nm, thin film transistors were fabricated at room temperature, showing enhanced mode operation with good saturation characteristics, mobility of 5.2 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, threshold voltage of 0.94 V and on/off ratio of ∼10⁴.     

Effect of annealing temperature on structural, electrical and optical properties of B-N codoped ZnO thin films

The B-N codoped p-type ZnO thin films have been prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering using a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen as sputtering gas. The effect of annealing temperature on the structural, electrical and optical properties of B-N codoped films was investigated by using X-ray diffraction, Hall-effect, photoluminescence and optical transmission measurements. Results indicated that the electrical properties of the films were extremely sensitive to the annealing temperature and the conduction type could be changed dramatically from n-type to p-type, and finally changed to weak p-type in a range from 600 °C to 800 °C. The B-N codoped p-type ZnO film with good structural, electrical and optical properties can be obtained at an intermediate annealing temperature region (e.g., 650 °C). The codoped p-type ZnO had the lowest resistivity of 2.3 Ω cm, Hall mobility of 11 cm²/Vs and carrier concentration of 1.2 × 10¹⁷ cm^− 3.     

Effect of process conditions on the optoelectronic characteristics of ZnO:Mo thin films prepared by pulsed direct current magnetron sputtering

The purpose of this study is to use pulsed magnetron sputtering to deposit transparent conductive ZnO:Mo (MZO) film on a Corning 1737 glass substrate. Various process parameters, including power, work pressure, pulsed frequency, film thickness, and substrate temperature, were analyzed for their effects on the microstructure and optoelectronic characteristics of MZO thin film. Experimental results show that MZO film with a low resistivity of approximately 8.9 × 10^− 4 Ω cm and a visible light transitivity of greater than 80% can be obtained using a Mo content of 1.77 wt.%, sputtering power of 100 W, work pressure of 0.4 Pa, pulsed frequency of 10 kHz, and film thickness of 500 nm without heating. The value of optical band gap of MZO increased upon increasing the crystallinity of the MZO thin film, and the range of the optical band gap of MZO thin film is from 3.30 to 3.35 eV.     

Low resistivity transparent conducting CdO thin films deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature

Transparent conducting cadmium oxide (CdO) films were deposited on PET (polyethylene terephthalate) substrate by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature. All the films deposited at room temperature were polycrystalline in rock-salt structure. Dependences of the physical properties of the CdO films on the oxygen partial pressure were systematically studied. The films deposited at low oxygen flow rate were (200) oriented, while the films deposited at an oxygen flow rate greater than 20 sccm were (111) oriented. The average grain size of the CdO films decreased as the oxygen flow rate increases as determined by XRD and SEM. The Hall effect measurement showed that CdO films have high concentration, low resistivity, and high mobility. Both the mobility and the concentration of the carrier decreased with the increase of the oxygen flow rate. A minimum sheet resistance of 36.1 Ω/□, or a lowest resistivity of 5.44 × 10^− 4 Ω cm (6.21 × 10²⁰/cm³, μ = 19.2 cm²/Vs) was obtained for films deposited at an oxygen flow rate of 10 sccm.     

衬底温度对磁控溅射制备外延ZnO薄膜结构特性的影响

在不同的衬底温度下,采用磁控溅射方法在蓝宝石(0001)衬底上制备了外延生长的ZnO薄膜.采用原子力显微镜(AFM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)、可见-紫外分光光度计系统研究了衬底温度对ZnO薄膜微观结构和光学特性的影响.AFM结果表明在不同村底温度制备的ZnO薄膜具有较为均匀的ZnO晶粒,且晶粒的尺寸随衬底温度的增加逐渐增大.XRD结果显示不同温度生长的ZnO薄膜均为外延生长,400℃生长的薄膜具有最好的结晶质量;光学透射谱显示在370nm附近均出现一个较陡的吸收边,表明制备的ZnO薄膜具有较高的质量,其光学能带隙随着衬底温度的增加而减小.     

直流磁控溅射铝纳米颗粒膜的微结构及电学特性

采用直流磁控溅射法,以高纯铝(99.99%)为靶材,高纯氩气(99.999%)为起辉气体,在经机械抛光的单晶Si衬底上制备铝纳米颗粒薄膜。利用X射线衍射仪(XRD)、光学薄膜测厚仪、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和四探针测试仪分别测试了铝纳米颗粒薄膜的晶相结构、薄膜厚度、表面形貌及电阻率。XRD衍射图谱表明此薄膜为面心立方的多晶结构,择优取向为Al(111)晶面。随溅射功率由30 W增至300 W,铝纳米颗粒薄膜的沉积速率由3.03 nm/min增加至20.03 nm/min;而随溅射压强由1 Pa增加至3 Pa,沉积速率由2.95 nm/min降低到1.66 nm/min。在溅射功率为150 W,溅射压强为1.0 Pa条件下制备的样品具有良好的晶粒分布。随溅射功率从80 W增大到160 W,样品电阻率由4.0×10-7Ω·m逐渐减小到1.9×10-7Ω·m;而随溅射压强从1 Pa增至3 Pa,样品电阻率由1.9×10-7Ω·m增加到7.1×10-7Ω·m。