Transparent and Conductive Al-Doped ZnO Thin Films. Influence of Al Concentration.

L. M. Balcazar, A. Maldonado and M. De la L. Olvera

Abstract:
Aluminum doped zinc oxide thin films, AZO, onto soda-lime glass substrates by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) were deposited. The molar concentration of the starting solution, temperature and time deposition were kept constant at 0.2M, 450°C and 6.5min, respectively. The Al concentrations in the starting solutions were varied at values of 1, 2, 3 and 5 at%. In this work, the structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties of AZO thin films were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction, XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, sheet resistance and Hall effect measurements, respectively. In all samples, the preferential growth in the [002] direction was observed. The average optical transmission in the UV-Vis region of AZO films presented high optical transparencies, >80%. The energy bandgap values varied around of 3.3eV, and the maximum figure of merit was of 1.86×10−3(Ω/□)−1. These properties make the AZO films applicable as transparent electrodes.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10770893