Structural and Electrical Properties of a-axis ZnO:Al Thin Films Grown by RF Magnetron Sputtering

In this paper, we report electrical, optical and structural properties of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures and pressures. The films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering on glass substrates in argon (Ar) ambient. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the AZO films deposited at room temperature (RT) and 20 Pa were mostly oriented along a-axis with preferred orientation along (100) direction. There was an improvement in resistivity ($3.7{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$) transmittance (95%) at constant substrate temperature (RT) and working pressure (20 Pa) using the Hall-effect measurement system and UV-vis spectroscopy, respectively. Our results have promising applications in low-cost transparent electronics, such as the thin-film solar cells and thin-film transistors due to favourable deposition conditions. Furthermore our film deposition method offers a procedure for preparing highly oriented (100) AZO films.