• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.107-112
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• 2007

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were deposited on non-alkali glass substrate by DC magnetron sputtering with 3 types of AZO targets (doped with 1.0 wt%, 2.0 wt%, 3.0 wt% $Al_2O_3$). Electrical, optical properties and microstructure of AZO films have been investigated by Hall effect measurements, UV/VIS/NIR spectrophotometer, and XRD, respectively. Crystallinity of AZO films increased with increasing substrate temperature ($T_s$) and doping ratio of Al. Resistivity and optical transmittance in visible light were $8.8{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ and above 85%, respectively, for the AZO film deposited using AZO target (doped with 3.0 wt% $Al_2O_3$) at $T_s$ of $300^{\circ}C$. On the other hand, transmittance of AZO films in near-infrared region decreased with increasing $T_s$ and doping ratio of Al, which could be attributed to the increase of carrier density.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.10
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• pp.1782-1785
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• 2007

In this paper, the effect of substrate temperature on structural, electrical and optical properties of aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were investigated. AZO thin films were prepared on glass substrate by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering technique. The properties of AZO were measured by using XRD, AFM, UV spectrophotometer, and hall effect measurement system. The resistivity of AZO films was improved under the condition of high substrate temperature. The resistivity decreased from $9.95{\times}10^{-2}\;{\Omega}-cm\;to\;1.1{\times}10^{-3}\;{\Omega}-cm$ as a result of high substrate temperature and the average transmittances in visible range were above 80%.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.163-167
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• 2013

Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films have been prepared on the glass substrates (Corning 1737) by sol-gel dip-coating method employing zinc acetate and aluminum chloride hexahydrate for the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) applications. 1 at% Al was doped to the ZnO thin films. The effects of post-heating temperature on the crystallization, optical and electrical properties of the AZO films have been investigated. Experimental results showed that post-heating temperature affected the microstructure, electrical resistance, and optical transmittance of the AZO films. From the X-ray diffraction analysis, all films have hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure. Optical transmittance spectra of the AZO films exhibited transmittance higher than about 80% within the visible wavelength region and the optical direct band gap ($E_g$) of these films was increased with increasing post-heating temperature. A minimum resistivity of $2.5{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$ was observed at $650^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.263-269
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• 2012

Al doped ZnO(AZO) thin films were deposited at different substrate temperatures by a continuous composition spread(CCS) method. Various compositions of Al doped ZnO thin films deposited at substrate temperatures between 0 and $250^{\circ}C$ were explored to find excellent electrical and optical properties. The AZO thin film deposited at $100^{\circ}C$ had the lowest resistivity, $9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}$ cm and its average transmittance at the 400 to 700 nm wavelength region was 92 %. Optimized composition of the AZO thin film which had the lowest resistivity and high transmittance was 3.13 wt% Al doped ZnO.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.422-422
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• 2012

투명전극 산화막은 태양전지, 평판 디스플레이 등의 투명전극과 같은 광전자 소자에 사용되고 있다. 투명 전도성 산화막으로서 ITO (Indium tin oxide)는 높은 투과도, 낮은 비저항, 높은 일함수 등의 장점을 가지고 있어서 그동안 널리 사용되어 왔다. 그러나 In의 희소성으로 인한 고가격 문제 때문에 이를 대체하기 위해 불순물을 도핑한 ZnO (Zinc oxide)에 관한 연구가 활발히 진행되어 왔다. ZnO의 전기전도도를 높이기 위해 일반적으로 Al, Ga, B와 같은 3족 원소가 ZnO의 n형 도펀트로 널리 사용된다. 그 중에서 Al은 반응성이 커서 박막 증착 중에 산화되기 쉬운 반면 낮은 생산단가, 우수한 전기적 및 광학적 특성을 보이기 때문에 투명 전극으로서 Al-doped ZnO (AZO)가 많이 이용되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 rf 마그네트론 스퍼터링 공정을 이용하여 glass 기판 위에 Al-doped ZnO (AZO) 투명 전도막을 증착하였고, 수명 및 신뢰성에 영향에 미치는 주요 인자로서 온도, 온도 사이클 및 습도에 따른 AZO 박막의 열화 특성에 대한 연구를 진행하였다. 또한, 온도 사이클, 고온 및 고온고습 환경에 장시간 노출된 AZO 박막들의 성능 저하 원인들을 미세구조 관찰, 전기적 및 광학적 특성 변화들을 연계하여 규명하고자 하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.267-272
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• 2007

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were grown on glass substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The effects of oxygen flow ratio, which was used for a sputtering gas, on the AZO thin films were investigated by using the X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Hall effects measurement. The AZO thin film, deposited with oxygen flow ratio of 0% at the growth temperature of $400^{\circ}C$, showed a strongly c-axis preferred orientation and the lowest resistivity of $6.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$. The ZnO (002) diffraction peak indicated a tendency to decrease substantially with increasing the oxygen flow ratio. Furthermore, as the oxygen flow ratio was decreased, the carrier concentration and the hall mobility were increased, but the electrical resistivity was decreased.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.652-657
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• 2015

We have investigated the properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films as functions of atomic layer deposition (ALD) oxidants. AZO transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) layer was deposited by ALD with adding trimethylaluminum (TMA) and diethylzinc (DEZn). AZO films were deposited at low temperature with $H_2O$ and $O_3$ as oxidants. Electrical, optical and structural properties of AZO thin films were investigated by 4-point probe, Hall effect measurement, UV-VIS, and AFM. Microstructure and atomic bonding states were investigated by HRXRD and XPS. The resistivity of AZO films grown using $H_2O$ was lower than the films grown using $H_2O$ and $O_3$, by approximately two orders of magnitude. The differences in oxygen vacancy peak intensity of AZO films were correlated to the optical and electrical properties.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.469-475
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films were synthesized using atomid layer deposition(ALD), which acurately controlled the uniform film thickness of the AZO thin films. To investigate the electrical and optical properites of the AZO thin films, AZO films using ALD was controlled to be three different thicknesses (50 nm, 100 nm, and 150 nm). The structural, chemical, electrical, and optical properties of the AZO thin films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field-emssion scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Hall measurement system, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. As the thickness of the AZO thin films increased, the crystallinity of the AZO thin films gradually increased, and the surface morphology of the AZO thin films were transformed from a porous structure to a dense structure. The average surface roughnesses of the samples using atomic force microscopy were ~3.01 nm, ~2.89 nm, and ~2.44 nm, respectively. As the thickness of the AZO filmsincreased, the surface roughness decreased gradually. These results affect the electrical and optical properties of AZO thin films. Therefore, the thickest AZO thin films with 150 nm exhibited excellent resistivity (${\sim}7.00{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$), high transmittance (~83.2 %), and the best FOM ($5.71{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}^{-1}$). AZO thin films fabricated using ALD may be used as a promising cadidate of TCO materials for optoelectronic applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.688-688
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
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• v.13 no.spc2
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• pp.407-410
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• 2012

The properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films were investigated as a function of H2/(Ar + H2) gas ratio using an AZO (2 wt% Al2O3) ceramic target in a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering system. The deposition process was done at 200 ℃ and in 2 × 10-2Torr working pressure and with various ratios of H2/(Ar + H2) gas. During the AZO film deposition process, partial H2 gas affected the AZO film characteristics. The electron resistivity (~ 9.21 × 10-4 Ωcm) was lowest and mobility (~17.8 ㎠/Vs) was highest in AZO films when the H2/(Ar + H2) gas ratio was 2.5%. When the H2/(Ar + H2) gas ratio was increased above 2.5%, the electron resistivity increased and mobility decreased with increasing H2/(Ar + H2) gas ratio in AZO films. The carrier concentration increased with increasing H2/(Ar + H2) gas ratio from 0% to 7.5%. This phenomenon was explained by reaction of hydrogen and oxygen and additional formation of oxygen vacancy. The average optical transmission in the visible light wavelength region over 90% and an orientation of the deposition was [002] orientation for AZO films grown with all H2/(Ar + H2) gas ratios.