• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.8
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• pp.1236-1241
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• 2017

We deposited Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) thin films on glass substrates ($200mm{\times}200mm$) by using in-line magnetron sputtering system. Effects of various deposition parameters such as working pressure, deposition power and substrate temperature on optoelectronic characteristics including surface-texture etching profiles were carefully investigated in this study. We found that relatively low working pressure and high deposition power offered to obtain enhanced conductivity and optical transmittance. Haze properties showed similar trend with the transmittance. Furthermore, surface-texture etching study exhibited good morphologies when the films were deposited at $200-300^{\circ}C$. On the basis of these optimizations, we could find the deposition region that produces highly transparent and conductive properties including efficient light scattering capability.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.24-27
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• 2009

A simple nonalkoxide sol-gel route for depositing an Al-doped ZnO thin film on a glass substrate was derived in this study. The initial Al dopant concentration in the sol-gel preparation varied and ranged from 0 to 5%. The sol-gel-derived thin films showed c-plane preferred crystallization of their hexagonal phase, with nanosized grain structures. First and second post-heat-treatments were carried out to improve the film’s electrical resistivity. The carrier density and the Hall mobility were measured and discussed to explain the electrical resistivity. The optical transmittance within the visible range showed compatible properties, which indicates the possible use of A1-doped ZnO as a transparent electrode in flat panel displays.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

AZO thin films have been fabricated on quartz substrate with various Al doping concentrations and annealing temperatures by sol-gel method. The bset condition of (002) orientation and smooth surface (rms = 1.082 nm) is obtained for the AZO thin film doped with 1 mol % Al and annealed at 550 $^{\circ}C$. The optical transmittance of AZO thin films is higher than 80 % in the visible region. We observe that the energy band gap extends with increasing the Al doping concentration. This phenomenon is due to the Burstein-Moss effect. Through the measurement of Hall effect, it is observed that the AZO thin film has larger carrier concentration and smaller electrical resistivity than the pure ZnO thin film. However, the AZO thin film shows the decrease of carrier concentration and the increase of resistivity with the increase of Al concentration, that is due to the segregation of Al at grain boundaries. The maximum carrier concentration of $1.80{\times}10^{19}\;cm^{-3}$ and the minimum resistivity of 0.84 ${\Omega}cm$ are obtained for the AZO thin film doped with 1 mol % Al and annealed at 550 $^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.94-101
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• 2023

Zinc oxide(ZnO) is a semiconductor material with a bandgap of 3.37 eV and an exciton binding energy of 60 meV for various applications. Recently ZnO has been proven to enhance its electrical properties for utilization as an alternative for transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials. In this study, cation(Al, Ga)-anion(F) single and double doped ZnO thin films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to enhance the electrical properties. The structural and optical properties of doped ZnO thin films were analyzed, and doping effects were confirmed to electrical characteristics. In single doped ZnO, it was observed that the carrier concentration was increased after doping, acting as a donor to ZnO. Among the single doping elements, F doped ZnO(FZO) showed the highest mobility and conductivity due to the passivation effect of oxygen vacancies. In the case of double doping, higher electrical characteristics were observed compared to single doping. Among the samples, Al-F doped ZnO(AFZO) exhibited the lowest resistance value. This results can be attributed to an increase in delocalized electron states and a decrease in lattice distortion resulting from the differences in ionic radius. The partial density of states(PDOS) was also analyzed and observed to be consistent with the experimental results.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.23.1-23.1
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• 2009

ZnO is of great interest for various technological applications ranging from optoelectronics to chemical sensors because of its superior emission, electronic, and chemical properties. In addition, vertically well-aligned ZnO nanorods on large areas with good optical and structural properties are of special interest for the fabrication of electronic and optical nanodevices. To date, several approaches have been proposed for the growth of one-dimensional (1D) ZnO nanostructunres. Several groups have been reported the MOCVD growth of ZnO nanorods with no metal catalysts at $400^{\circ}C$, and fabricated a well-aligned ZnO nanorod array on a PLD prepared ZnO film by using a catalyst-free method. It has been suggested that the synthesis of ZnO nanowires using a template-less/surfactant-free aqueous method. However, despite being a well-established and cost-effective method of thin film deposition, the use of magnetrons puttering to grow ZnO nanorods has not been reported yet. Additionally,magnetron sputtering has the dvantage of producing highly oriented ZnO film sat a relatively low process temperature. Currently, more effort has been concentrated on the synthesis of 1D ZnO nanostructures doped with various metal elements (Al, In, Ga, etc.) to obtain nanostructures with high quality,improved emission properties, and high conductance in functional oxide semiconductors. Among these dopants, Ga-doped ZnO has demonstrated substantial advantages over Al-doped ZnO, including greater resistant to oxidation. Since the covalent bond length of Ga-O ($1.92\;{\AA}$) is nearly equal to that of Zn-O ($1.97\;{\AA}$), high electron mobility and low electrical resistivity are also expected in the Ga-doped ZnO. In this article, we report the successful growth of Ga-doped ZnO nanorods on c-Sapphire substrate without metal catalysts by magnetrons puttering and our investigations of their structural, optical, and field emission properties.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.51-51
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.10 s.269
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• pp.742-748
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• 2004

Isopropanol of low boiling point was used as a solvent to prepare Al-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films. A homogeneous and stable sol was made from Zn acetate a solute whose mole concentration was 0.7mol/$\iota$ and Al chloride as a dopant. Al-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by sol-gel method as a function of post-heating temperature from 500 to $700^{\circ}C$ and the optical and electrical properties were investigated. The c-axis orientation along (002) plane was enhanced with the increasing of post-heating temperature and the surface morphology of the films showed a homogeneous and nano-sized microstructure. The optical transmittance of the films post-heated below $650^{\circ}C$ was over $86\%$, but decreased at $700^{\circ}C$. The electrical resistivity of the thin films decreased from 73 to 22 $\Omega$-cm as the post-heating temperature increased up to $650^{\circ}C$, but increased greatly to 580 $\Omega$-cm at $700^{\circ}C$. XPS analysis indicated that the deterioration of electrical and optical properties was attributed to the precipitation of $Al_2O_3$ phase on the surface of AZO thin film. This result suggests that the optimum post-heating temperature to improve electrical and optical properties is $600^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.58-61
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• 2005

In an effort to improve the electrical properties of ZnO:Al transparent electrode films, post-annealing treatment in hydrogen atmosphere was attempted with varying annealing time at 573 K for compatibility with typical display device fabrication processes. It was observed that carrier concentrations and mobilities increased with longer annealing time with small changes in crystallinity. This resulted in substantial decrease in resistivity from $4.80{\times}10^{-3}$ to $8.30{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ due to increased carrier concentration. Such improvements in electrical properties are attributed to the passivation of the grain boundary surfaces. The optical properties of the films, which changed in accordance with the Burstein-Moss effect, were consistent with the observed changes in electrical properties.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.73-78
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• 2012

The chemical, electrical, and optical properties of ZnO and Al-doped ZnO films after high temperature annealing were studied. The resistivity increased significantly after annealing at $600^{\circ}C$ under $10^{-10}$ Torr atmosphere. The mechanism of the resistivity change was explored using photoemission spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectrometer. The results indicated that the amount of oxygen deficient region O-Zn bonds decreased and oxygen vacancy was decreased after the high temperature vacuum annealing. The increase in the resistivity of ZnO and Al-doped ZnO films was resulted from the decrease in carrier concentration due to a decrease in the amount of oxygen deficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.789-794
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• 2008

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has been widely studied for its practical applications such as transparent conduction electrodes for flat panel displays and solar cells. Especially, ZnO films show good chemical stability against hydrogen plasma, absence of toxicity, abundance in nature, and then suitable for photovoltaic applications. However, the fabrication process of thin film solar cells require a high substrate temperature and/or post heat treatment. Therefore, the layers have to withstand high temperatures, requiring an excellent stability without degrading their electronic and optical properties. In this paper, we investigated the stability of zinc oxide (ZnO) films doped with aluminum and hydrogen. Doped ZnO films were prepared by r.f. magnetron sputter and followed by heat treatment at different temperatures and for various times.