Influence of post‐deposition annealing on electrical and optical properties of ZnO‐based TCOs deposited at room temperature

• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201532891
• Publication Date: 2016-08-09T12:55:29Z
• Authors: Andriy Lyubchyk; António Vicente; Pedro U. Alves; Bruno Catela; Bertrand Soule; Tiago Mateus; Manuel J. Mendes; Hugo Águas; Elvira Fortunato; Rodrigo Martins
• Keywords: Indium tin oxide; Transparent conducting film; Deposition

The post‐deposition modification of ZnO‐based transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) can be the key to produce thin films with optoelectronic properties similar indium tin oxide (ITO), but at a much lower cost. Here, we present electro‐optical results achieved for annealing Al–Zn–O (AZO), AZO:H, Ga–Zn–O:H (GZO:H), and Zn–O:H (ZNO:H) deposited by RF sputtering room temperature. These studies comprise thermal atmospheric pressure, vacuum, forming gas, H 2 Ar atmospheres, plasmas, which lead significant enhancement their properties, are correlated morphological structural improvements. leads an in resistivity above 40% AZO, GZO:H, reaching ρ ≈ 2.6–3.5 × 10 −4 Ωcm, while ZnO:H showed improvement 13%. averaged optical transmittance visible region is about 89% investigated TCOs. Such match state‐of‐art ITO ( Ωcm VIS range 90%) employing more earth‐abundant materials.