Proceedings Article | 8 September 2011
Proc. SPIE. 8128, Current Developments in Lens Design and Optical Engineering XII; and Advances in Thin Film Coatings VII
KEYWORDS: Optical properties, Sputter deposition, Annealing, X-ray diffraction, Hydrogen, Scanning electron microscopy, Optoelectronic devices, Zinc oxide, Plasma, Protactinium
Alumina-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films have wide range of applications in optical and optoelectronic devices. AZO
films have advantage in high transparency, high stability to hydrogen plasma and low cost to alternative ITO film. AZO
film was prepared by direct-current (DC) magnetron sputtering from ceramic ZnO:Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> target. The AZO films were
compared in two different conditions. The first is substrate heating process, in which AZO film was deposited by
different substrate temperature, room temperature, 150 °C and 250 °C. The second is vacuum annealing process, in which
AZO film with deposited at room temperature have been annealed at 250 °C and 450 °C in vacuum. The optical
properties, electrical properties, grain size and surface structure properties of the films were studied by UV-VIS-NIR
spectrophotometer, Hall effect measurement equipment, x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The
resistivity, carrier mobility, carrier concentration, and grain size of AZO films were 1.92×10<sup>-3</sup> Ω-cm, 6.38
cm<sup>2</sup>/Vs,
5.08×10<sup>20</sup> #/cm<sup>3</sup>, and 31.48 nm respectively, in vacuum annealing of 450 °C. The resistivity, carrier mobility, carrier
concentration, and grain size of AZO films were 8.72×10<sup>-4</sup> Ω-cm, 6.32 cm<sup>2</sup>/Vs, 1.13×10<sup>21</sup> #/cm<sup>3</sup>, and 31.56 nm,
respectively, when substrate temperature was at 250 °C. Substrate heating process is better than vacuum annealed
process for AZO film deposited by DC Magnetron Sputtering.
