Comparative Study of the Properties between Transparent Conducting ZnO:Zr and ZnO:Al Films Deposited by DC Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract:

Transparent conducting zirconium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Zr) and aluminium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films were deposited on glass substrates by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The crystallinity of ZnO:Zr and ZnO:Al thin films increases as the target-to-substrate distance decreases, and the crystallinity of ZnO:Zr films is found to be always better than that of ZnO:Al films prepared under the same deposition conditions. As the target-to-substrate distance decreases, the resistivity of both film types decreases greatly while the optical transmittance does not change much with the variation of the distance. When target-to-substrate distance is 4.1 cm, the lowest resistivity of 6.0×10^-4 Ω·cm and 5.7×10^-4 Ω·cm was obtained for ZnO:Zr and ZnO:Al films, respectively. The figure of merit arrived at a maximum value of 3.98×10^-2 Ω for ZnO:Zr films lower than 5×10^-2 Ω for ZnO:Al films.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 284-286)
• Pages: 2182-2186
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.284-286.2182
• Online since: July 2011
• Authors: Hua Fu Zhang, Han Fa Liu, Chang Kun Yuan
• Keywords: DC Magnetron Sputtering, Target-to-Substrate Distance, Thin Film, ZnO:Al, ZnO:Zr

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