Studying of transparent conductive ZnO:Al thin films by RF reactive magnetron sputtering

RF reactive magnetron sputtering was used to deposit transparent conductive ZnO:Al thin films on Coming 7059 glass and Si wafers. The dependence of film properties including microstructure, optical and electronic on coating parameters (target composition, RF power, substrate temperature, pressure, O-2 partial pressure ratio, annealing temperature and annealing time) was investigated. The effect of process parameters was determined by means of fractional factorial design of the experiment. Smooth and crystalline ZnO:Al films were obtained in (0 0 0 2) the preferred orientation. Highly transparent (> 80%) and low resistivity ZnO:Al films were deposited with optical band gap between 3.3 and 3.6 eV. By raising RF power and annealing temperature, and increasing the annealing time, the resistivity could be decreased to a low value of 6.24 x 10(-4) Omega cm. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.