直流磁控溅射功率对溅射生长GZO薄膜光电性能的影响

本文采用直流磁控溅射沉积系统在玻璃基底上沉积镓掺杂氧化锌(GZO)薄膜,将溅射功率从120W调整到240W,步长为30W,研究功率变化对GZO薄膜的晶体结构、表面形貌、光学性能和电学性能的影响。结果表明,溅射功率对GZO薄膜电阻率有显著的影响。溅射功率为210W时薄膜呈现最低电阻率为3.31×10~(-4)Ω·cm,可见光波段平均光学透光率接近84%。随着溅射功率的增加,薄膜表面形貌和生长形态发生较大变化,并直接得到具有一定凸凹不平的微结构,GZO薄膜的致密性先增加后降低。     

Single-step process for transparent conductive ZnO:Ga films with uniform ultrahigh haze by oblique angle deposition

Increasing the haze of front electrodes of solar cells while retaining high optical transmittance is beneficial for increasing the power conversion efficiency. However, conventional methods of fabricating hazy films require additional etching steps or materials. Moreover, depositing large-area transparent conductive oxides with uniform ultrahigh haze is challenging. Here, we combine the oblique angle deposition and the atmospheric pressure plasma jet to produce GZO with a uniform ultrahigh haze of > 80% (non-uniformity ~1.35%), high transmittance of 88% (referenced to the substrate), and resistivity of 1.96 × 10^–3 Ω cm in a single step. We show that the high haze is caused by the “pre-deposition” of adsorbed particles on the bare substrate downstream and that the upstream dummy area should be avoided for high uniformity. Unlike existing methods, our method produces uniform films with ultrahigh haze and good transmittance in a single step without additional etching/ materials or changing parameters during operation.     

Structural, electrical and bending properties of transparent conductive Ga-doped ZnO films on polymer substrates

We investigated the characteristics of highly transparent conductive Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) polycrystalline films of 100 nm thickness deposited on glass and polymer substrates. GZO films were deposited by ion plating with dc-arc discharge. We developed multiple-deposition method to obtain various deposition process temperatures lower than 100 °C. Cross-sectional SEM images show that all the GZO films have columnar structure. Analysis of data obtained by XRD measurements shows that all the GZO films with wurtzite structure exhibit highly (002) orientation perpendicular to the substrate. The resistivity of the GZO films deposited on polyester and glass substrates were 5.0 × 10^-4 Ω · cm. The mechanical bending properties of the GZO films were investigated by comparing the sheet resistance determined before and after a bending test with various bending diameters. For the bending diameter of more than 30 mm, all the GZO films exhibited excellent bending properties with no change in sheet resistance. For the bending diameter of less than 20 mm, we found the sheet resistance affected by the bending. We demonstrated that our multiple-deposition method to achieve different controllable polyester substrate temperatures is highly suitable for improving the bending properties of GZO films.     

射频磁控溅射法制备GZO:Ti薄膜的微结构及其光学性质

采用射频(RF)磁控溅射工艺于玻璃衬底沉积了镓钛 共掺杂氧化锌(GZO:Ti)半导体薄膜,研究了沉积 温度对薄膜微观结构和光学性质的影响。通过X射线衍射仪(XRD)和紫外分光光度计对其晶体 结构和透射光谱特 性进行表征,同时利用光谱拟合法获取了薄膜的光学常数。研究结果表明,所有薄膜均具备 六角纤锌矿结 构和c轴择优取向特性,沉积温度对薄膜的微结构参数、光学 常数和光学带隙具有明显调控作用,当沉积 温度为653K时,GZO:Ti薄膜的晶粒尺寸最大(82.12nm)、位错密度最低(1.48×10－4 nm－2) 、微应变最小(0.001)、可见光区平均透射 率 最高(82.06%)及光学带隙值最大(3.57eV )。     

Synthesis and characterization of sol-gel derived gallium-doped zinc oxide thin films

Gallium-doped ZnO (GZO) semiconductor thin films were prepared by a sol-gel spin coating process. The effects of Ga dopant concentrations on the microstructure, electrical resistivity, optical properties, and photoluminescence (PL) were studied. XRD results showed that all the as-prepared GZO films had a wurtzite phase and a preferred orientation along the [0 0 2] direction. ZnO thin films doped with Ga had lower electrical resistivity, lower RMS roughness, and improved optical transmittance in the visible region. The lowest average electrical resistivity value, 2.8 × 10² Ω cm, was achieved in the ZnO thin films doped with 2% Ga, which exhibited an average transmittance of 91.5%. This study also found that the optical band gap of Ga-doped films was 3.25 eV, slightly higher than that of undoped samples (3.23 eV), and the PL spectra of GZO films showed strong violet-light emission centers at about 2.86 eV (the corresponding wavelength of which is about 434 nm).     

Effects of ZnO buffer layer on the optoelectronic performances of GZO films

Gallium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Ga=97:3 wt%, GZO) transparent conducting films have been deposited on glass substrates (Corning 1737F), with and without ZnO buffer layers by radio-frequency (r.f.) magnetron sputtering. The effect of ZnO buffer layer deposition parameters on electrical, structural, morphological and optical properties of GZO films (GZO/ZnO/glass) was investigated. The optimization of coating process parameters (r.f. power, sputtering pressure, thickness, annealing) on ZnO buffer layer with multiple qualities based on the orthogonal array has been studied. The electrical resistivity and the average transmittance of the GZO/ZnO/glass films were improved by annealing in vacuum ambient of the ZnO buffer layer. Findings based on the grey relational analysis show that the lowest electrical resistivity of GZO/ZnO/glass films to be about 9.45×10⁻⁴ Ω cm, and visible range transmittance about 85%.     

X-ray images obtained from cold cathodes using carbon nanotubes coated with gallium-doped zinc oxide thin films

X-ray imaging data obtained from cold cathodes using gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO)-coated CNT emitters are presented. Multi-walled CNTs were directly grown on conical-type (250 μm-diameter) tungsten-tip substrates at 700 °C via inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD). GZO films were deposited on the grown CNTs at room temperature using a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were used to monitor the variations in the morphology and microstructure of the CNTs before and after GZO coating. The formation of the GZO layers on the CNTs was confirmed using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The CNT-emitter that was coated with a 10-nm-thick GZO film displayed an excellent performance, such as a maximum emission current of 258 μA (at an applied field of 4 V/μm) and a threshold field of 2.20 V/μm (at an emission current of 1.0 μA). The electric-field emission characteristics of the GZO-coated CNT emitter and of the pristine (i.e., non-coated) CNT emitter were compared, and the images from an X-ray system were obtained by using the GZO-coated CNT emitter as the cold cathode for X-ray generation.     

Effect of thermal annealing on electrical properties of transparent conductive Ga-doped ZnO films prepared by ion-plating using direct-current arc discharge

The effect of thermal annealing on the electrical properties of highly transparent conductive Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films deposited on glass substrates at 200 °C by an ion-plating deposition was investigated. GZO films were annealed in the temperature range from 200 to 600 °C for 30 min under the atmospheric pressure of high-purity N₂ gas. Up to 300 °C, GZO films were electrically very stable, and there was little change in resistivity. When the annealing temperature exceeded 400 °C, resistivity increased rapidly, originating from an abrupt decrease in carrier concentration. It was suggested to be due to both desorption of Zn from GZO films and grain boundary segregation of Ga dopants.     

Characteristics of indium-free GZO/Ag/GZO and AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer electrode grown by dual target DC sputtering at room temperature for low-cost organic photovoltaics

We compared the electrical, optical, structural and surface properties of indium-free Ga-doped ZnO (GZO)/Ag/GZO and Al-doped ZnO (AZO)/Ag/AZO multilayer electrodes deposited by dual target direct current sputtering at room temperature for low-cost organic photovoltaics. It was shown that the electrical and optical properties of the GZO/Ag/GZO and AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer electrodes could be improved by the insertion of an Ag layer with optimized thickness between oxide layers, due to its very low resistivity and surface plasmon effect. In addition, the Auger electron spectroscopy depth profile results for the GZO/Ag/GZO and AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer electrodes showed no interfacial reaction between the Ag layer and GZO or AZO layer, due to the low preparation temperature and the stability of the Ag layer. Moreover, the bulk heterojunction organic solar cell fabricated on the multilayer electrodes exhibited higher power conversion efficiency than the organic solar cells fabricated on the single GZO or AZO layer, due to much lower sheet resistance of the multilayer electrode. This indicates that indium-free GZO/Ag/GZO and AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer electrodes are a promising low-cost and low-temperature processing electrode scheme for low-cost organic photovoltaics.