Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering (한국표면공학회지)

The Korean Institute of Surface Engineering (한국표면공학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Effect of Ag interlayer on the optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films

Ag 중간층 두께에 따른 ZnO 박막의 광학적, 전기적 특성 연구

  • Kim, Hyun-Jin (School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan) ;
  • Jang, Jin-Kyu (School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan) ;
  • Choi, Jae-Wook (School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan) ;
  • Lee, Yeon-Hak (School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan) ;
  • Heo, Sung-Bo (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology) ;
  • Kong, Young-Min (School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan) ;
  • Kim, Daeil (School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ulsan)
  • 김현진 (울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) ;
  • 장진규 (울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) ;
  • 최재욱 (울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) ;
  • 이연학 (울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) ;
  • 허성보 (한국생산기술연구원 동남본부 첨단하이브리드생산기술센터) ;
  • 공영민 (울산대학교 첨단소재공학부) ;
  • 김대일 (울산대학교 첨단소재공학부)
  • Received : 2022.04.12
  • Accepted : 2022.04.20
  • Published : 2022.04.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

ZnO single layer (60 nm thick) and ZnO with Ag interlayer (ZnO/Ag/ZnO; ZAZ) films were deposited on the glass substrates by using radio frequency (RF) and direct current (DC) magnetron sputter to evaluate the effectiveness of Ag interlayer on the optical visible transmittance and the conductivity of the films. In the ZAZ films, the thickness of ZnO layers was kept at 30 nm, while the Ag thickness was varied as 5, 10, 15 and 20 nm. In X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, ZnO films show the (002) diffraction peak and ZAZ films also show the weak ZnO (002) peak and Ag (111) diffraction peak. As a thickness of Ag interlayer increased to 20 nm, the grain size of the Ag films enlarged to 11.42 nm and the optical band gap also increased from 4.15 to 4.22 eV with carrier concentration increasing from 4.9 to 10.5×1021 cm-3. In figure of merit measurements, the ZAZ films with a 10 nm thick Ag interlayer showed the higher figure of merit of 4.0×10-3 Ω-1 than the ZnO single layer and another ZAZ films. From the experimental result, it is assumed that the Ag interlayer enhanced effectively the opto-electrical performance of the ZAZ films.

Keywords

References

  1. M. Yahya, M. R. Fadavieslam, The effects of argon plasma treatment on ITO properties and the performance of OLED devices, Opt. Mater., 120 (2021) 111400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2021.111400
  2. B, Barman, S. Kumar, V. Dutta, Fabrication of highly conducting ZnO/Ag/ZnO and AZO/Ag/AZO transparent conducting oxide layers using RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature, Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process, 129 (2021) 105801. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2021.105801
  3. B. He, J. Xu, H. Z. Xing, C. R. Wang, X. D. Zhang, The effect of substrate temperature on high quality c-axis oriented AZO thin films prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering for photoelectric device applications, Superlattices Microstruct., 64 (2013) 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spmi.2013.10.003
  4. M. Alauddin, J. K. Song, S. M. Park, Effects of aluminum doping and substrate temperature on zinc oxide thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition, Appl. Phys. A, 101 (2010) 707-711. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-010-5925-4
  5. S. B. Koo, C. M. Lee, S. J. Kwon, J. M. Jeon, J. Y. Hur, H. K. Lee, Study on aging effect of adhesion strength between polyimide film and copper layer, Met. Mater. Int., 25 (2019) 117-126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12540-018-0167-7
  6. S. H. Choe, S. B. Heo, J. K. Jang, H. J. Kim, J. W. Choi, Y. S. Kim, Y. M. Kong, D. Kim, Effect of electron irradiation on the optical and electrical properties of TIO/Ag/TIO films, J. Korean Soc. Manuf. Technol. Eng., 30 (2021) 410-414.
  7. D. Kim, The structural and optoelectrical properties of TiON/Au/TiON multilayer films, Mater. Lett., 64 (2010) 668-670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2009.12.032
  8. B. D. Cullity, Elements of X-ray diffraction, M. Cohen, Eds., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., Boston, MA, USA (1978).
  9. Y. S. Kim, J. Y. Choi, Y. J. Park, S. H. Choe, Y. M. Gong, D. Kim, Influence of film thickness on the electrical and optical properties of ZnO/Ag/SnO2 tri-layer films, Korean J. Met. Mater., 57 (2019) 324-327. https://doi.org/10.3365/kjmm.2019.57.5.324
  10. S. Peng, T. Yao, Y. Yang, K. Zhang, J. Jiang, K. Jin, G. Li, X. Cao, G. Xu, Y. Wang, Influences of the RF power ratio on the optical and electrical properties of GZO thin films by DC coupled RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature, Physica B., 503 (2016) 111-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2016.09.027
  11. B. G. Bagley, Amorphous and liquid semiconductor, J. Tauc, Eds., Plenum Press, New York, USA (1974).
  12. Y. Wang, W. Tang, L. Zhang, J. Zhao, Electron concentration dependence of optical band gap shift in Ga-doped ZnO thin films by magnetron sputtering, Thin Solid Films, 565 (2014) 62-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2014.06.046
  13. G. Haacke, New figure of merit for transparent conductors, J. Appl. Phys., 47 (1976) 4086. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.323240