• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1067-1072
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• 2023

We prepared AZO (Al₂O₃ : 3 wt %) thin films according to the substrate temperature using the pulsed laser deposition method and the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the thin films were investigated. The AZO thin film deposited at 400℃ showed the best (002) orientation and the FWHM was 0.38°. As a result of the investigation of electrical properties, it was confirmed that the carrier concentration and mobility increased and the resistivity decreased as the substrate temperature increased. The average transmittance in the visible light region showed a high value of 85% or more regardless of the substrate temperature. The Burstein-Moss effect, in which the carrier concentration would increase with increasing substrate temperature thereby widening the energy band gap, was also observed. The resistivity and the figure of merit of the AZO thin film deposited at a substrate temperature of 400℃ were 6.77 × 10^-4 Ω·cm and 1.02 × 10⁴ Ω^-1·cm^-1 respectively, showing the best value.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.212-218
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• 2012

The optical properties of AZO thin films prepared by the RF mangnetron sputtering system was studied to research the dependance of chemical properties of substrate. The substrate was the SiOC film deposited by Inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition with various gas flow rate of $O_2$ and Ar (DMDMOS). In accordance with the increase of Ar gas flow rates, the Si-O bond in the SiOC film increased and then progressed the amorphism. The roughness of AZO grown on SiOC film with high degree of amorphism decreased and then improved the flatness of surfaces. Moreover, the ultra violet emission with high intensity was spontaneously induced in the AZO film growed on SiOC film with high degree of amorphism.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2012

Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin film was deposited by using Facing Target Sputtering (FTS) system. This work examined the properties of AZO thin film as a function of the substrate temperature. The sputtering targets were 4 inch diameter disks of AZO (ZnO : $Al_2O_3$ = 98 : 2 wt.% ). The properties of electrical, structural and optical were investigated by 4-point probe, Hall effect measurement, x-ray diffractometer (XRD), field-emitting scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and UV/VIS spectrometer. The lowest resistivity of films was $5.67{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}.cm$ and the average optical transmittance of the films was above 85% in the visible range.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.25-29
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• 2010

We have investigated the effect of surface roughness of TCO substrate on the characteristics of OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. In order to control the surface roughness of AZO thin films, we have processed photo-lithography and reactive ion etching. The micro-size patterned mask was used, and the etching depth was controlled by changing etching time. The surface morphology of the AZO thin film was observed by FESEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM). And then, organic materials and cathode electrode were sequentially deposited on the AZO thin films. Device structure was AZO/${\alpha}$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al. The DPVB was used as a blue emitting material. The electrical characteristics such as current density vs. voltage and luminescence vs. voltage of OLED devices were measured by using spectrometer. The current vs. voltage and luminance vs. voltage characteristics were systematically degraded with increasing surface roughness. Furthermore, the retention test clearly presented that the reliability of OLED devices was directly influenced with the surface roughness, which could be interpreted in terms of the concentration of the electric field on the weak and thin organic layers caused by the poor step coverage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.329.1-329.1
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• 2014

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.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.577-582
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• 2013

AZO (aluminum-doped zinc oxide) is one of the best candidate materials to replace ITO (indium tin oxide) for TCOs (transparent conductive oxides) used in flat panel displays, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and organic solar cells (OSCs). In the present study, to apply an AZO thin film to the transparent electrode of an organic solar cell, a low-temperature selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) process was adopted to deposit an AZO thin film on a flexible poly-ethylene-naphthalate (PEN) substrate. The reactive gases for the ALD process were di-ethyl-zinc (DEZ) and tri-methyl-aluminum (TMA) as precursors and H2O as an oxidant. The structural, electrical, and optical characteristics of the AZO thin film were evaluated. From the measured results of the electrical and optical characteristics of the AZO thin films deposited on the PEN substrates by ALD, it was shown that the AZO thin film appeared to be comparable to a commercially used ITO thin film, which confirmed the feasibility of AZO as a TCO for flexible organic solar cells in the near future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.886-887
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• 2011

To obtain a transparent electrode, AZO thin film was deposited on SiOC film with various flow rates by rf magnetron sputtering system. SiOC film was deposited with various DMDMOS/O2 flow rate ratio by CVD, The optical electrical properties of the SiOC film and SiOC/AZO were analyzed by the uv visible spectrometer and 4 point prove system. The reflectance of SiOC/AZO film was changed in compared with that of SiOC film. The resistance was decreased with low RF power because of increasing the concentration of carriers.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.285-291
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• 2020

Recent advances in technology using ultra-thin noble metal film in oxide/metal/oxide structures have attracted attention because this material is a promising alternative to meet the needs of transparent conduction electrodes (TCE). AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films are prepared by magnetron sputtering for Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) of kesterite solar cells. It is shown that the electrical and optical properties of the AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films can be improved by the very low resistivity and surface plasmon effects due to the deposition of different thicknesses of Ag layer between oxide layers fixed at AZO 30 nm. The AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films of Ag 15 nm show high mobility of 26.4 ㎠/Vs and low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.58^⁎10^-5 Ωcm and 5.0 Ω/sq. Also, the AZO/Ag (15 nm)/AZO multilayer film shows relatively high transmittance of more than 65 % in the visible region. Through this, we fabricated CZTSSe thin film solar cells with 7.51 % efficiency by improving the short-circuit current density and fill factor to 27.7 mV/㎠ and 62 %, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.863-867
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• 2008

In this paper, to increase the light current efficiency of photodiode, we fabricated aluminum-doped zinc oxide(AZO) thin films by RF magnetron sputtering. AZO thin films were deposited at low temperature of 100 $^{\circ}C$ and different RF powers of 50, 100, 150 and 200 W due to selective process technology. Then the AZO thin films were annealed at 400 $^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr in vacuum ambient to increase crystalline. The lowest resistivity of 1.35 ${\times}$ $10^{-3}$ ${\Omega}cm$ and a high transmittance over 90 % were obtained under the conditions of 3 mTorr, 100 'c and 150 W. The optimized AZO thin films were deposited as anti-reflection coating on PN junction of silicon photodiode. It was confirmed by the result of $V_r-I_{ph}$ curve that the efficiency of photodiode with AZO thin film was enhanced 17 % more than commercial photodiode.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.66-72
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• 2010

In this paper, AZO thin film was deposited on polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by r. f. magnetron sputtering method from a ZnO target mixed with 2[wt%] Al2O3. The flexible film-typed dye sensitized solar cell(F-DSC) was fabricated and photo-electric conversion efficiency was investigated. The results showed that the minimum resistivity and the maximum deposition rate of AZO conducting film were recorded as $1.8{\times}10^{-3}[{\Omega}{\cdot}cm]$ and 25.5[nm/min], respectively at r.f. power of 220[W]. From the analysis of XPS data an improvement of electrical resistivity or an increase in carrier concentration with increasing sputtering power may be related to the generation of lattice imperfections as a result of increasing component ratio of O1s/Zn2p, which generates donor carriers or active growth of crystalline grain. The photo-electric conversion efficiency of F-DSC with AZO conducting electrode was over 2.79[%], which was comparable as that with commercially available ITO electrode.