• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.8-16
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• 2010

In this paper, we investigated the effects of $O_2$ fraction on the properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. Hall, photoluminescence (PL), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements revealed that the p-type conductivity was exhibited for AZO films with an $O_2$ fraction of 0.9 while the n-type conductivity was observed for films with $O_2$ fractions in range of 0 - 0.6. PL and XPS also showed that the acceptor-like defects, such as zinc vacancies and oxygen interstitials, increased in films prepared by an $O_2$ fraction of 0.9, resulting in the p-type conductivity in the films. Hall results indicated that AZO films prepared by $O_2$ fractions in range of 0 - 0.6 can be used for electrode layers in the applications of transparent thin film transistor. We concluded from the X-ray diffraction analysis that worse crystallinity with a smaller grain size as well as higher tensile stress was observed in the films prepared by a higher $O_2$ fraction, which is related to incorporation of more oxygen atoms into the films during deposition. The study of atomic force microscope suggested that the smoother surface morphology was observed in films prepared by using $O_2$ fraction, which causes the higher resistivity in those films, as evidenced by Hall measurements.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.07a
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• pp.1260-1261
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• 2008

Aluminium doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin film has emerged as one of the most promising transparent conducting electrode in flat panel displays(FPD) and in photovoltaic devices since it is inexpensive, mechanically stable, and highly resistant to deoxidation. In this paper ZnO:Al thin film was deposited on the polyethylene terephthalate(PET) substrate by the capacitively coupled r.f. magnetron sputtering method. Wide ranges of bias voltage, -30V${\sim}$45V, was applied to the growing films as an additional energy instead of substrate heating, and the effect of positive and negative bias on the film structure and electrical properties of ZnO:Al films was studied and discussed. The results showed that a bias applied to the substrate during sputtering contributed to the improvement of electrical properties of the film by attracting ions and electrons in the plasma to bombard the growing films. These bombardments provided additional energy to the growing ZnO film on the substrate, resulting in significant variations in film structure and electrical properties. The film deposited on the PET substrate at r. f. discharge power of 200 W showed the minimum resistivity of about $2.4{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$ and a transmittance of about 87%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.123-123
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• 2015

Al doped ZnO(AZO) films as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode were deposited on glass, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) at room temperature by a conventional rf-magneton sputtering (CMS) and a facing target sputtering (FTS) using Al2O3 and ZnO targets. In order to investigation of AZO properties, the structural, surface morphology, electrical, and optical characteristics of AZO films were respectively analyzed. The resistivities of AZO films using FTS system were $6.50{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on glass, $7.0{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PEN, and $7.4{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PET substrates, while the values of AZO films using CMS system were $7.6{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on glass, $1.20{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PEN, and $1.58{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PET substrates. The AZO-films deposited by FTS system showed uniform surface compared to those of the films by CMS system. We thought that the films deposited by FTS system had low stress due to bombardment of high energetic particles during CMS process, resulted in enhanced electrical conductivity and crystalline quality by highly c-axis preferred orientation and closely packed nano-crystalline of AZO films using FTS system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.138-138
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• 2009

Al, Ga and In doped ZnO thin film were prepared by faing targets sputtering as a function of oxygen gas contents at R.T. Base pressure was $2{\times}10^{-6}torr$, and working pressure was 1mTorr. The properties of thin films on the electrical and optical properties of the deposited films were investigated by using a four-point probe (Chang-min), a Hall Effect measurement (Ecopia) and an UV/VIS spectrometer (HP). The minimum resistivities of AZO, GZO and IZO thin film were $6.5{times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}-cm],5.5{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}-cm]$ and $4.29{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}-cm]$. The average transmittance of over 80% was seen in the visible range.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.04b
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• pp.101-102
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• 2009

We described the growth of undoped ZnO thin films and their optical properties changing with a various growth temperature. The un doped ZnO thin films were grown on c-$Al_2O_3$ substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at room temperature, 200, 400, and $600^{\circ}C$, respectively. Field emission microscopy (FE-SEM) measurements showed that the grain size of undoped ZnO thin films are increasing as a increase of growth temperature. In addition, we were investigated that the structural and optical properties of undoped ZnO thin films by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) studied. Also, we could confirmed that the exciton luminescence was strongly related to charge trap by grain boundary of the samples using micro-PL measurement.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.321-323
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• 2013

100 nm thick Ga doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were deposited with DC and RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature on glass substrate and Al coated glass substrate, respectively. and the effect of the Al underlayer on the optical and electrical properties of the GZO films was investigated. As-deposited GZO single layer films had an optical transmittance of 80% in the visible wavelength region, and sheet resistance of 1,516 ${\Omega}/{\Box}$, while the optical and electrical properties of GZO/Al bi-layered films were influenced by the thickness of the Al buffer layer. GZO films with 2 nm thick Al film show a lower sheet resistance of 990 ${\Omega}/{\Box}$, and an optical transmittance of 78%. Based on the figure of merit (FOM), it can be concluded that the thin Al buffer layer effectively increases the performance of GZO films as a transparent and conducting electrode without intentional substrate heating or a post deposition annealing process.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.691-698
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• 2010

In this study Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have been fabricated on Eagle 2000 glass substrates at various substrate temperature ($100{\sim}500^{\circ}C$) and working pressure (10 ~ 40 mTorr) by RF magnetron sputtering in order to investigate the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the AZO thin films. The obtained films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented in the (002) crystallographic direction. The AZO thin films, which were deposited at $T=300^{\circ}C$ for 10 mTorr, shows the highest (002) orientation, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (002) diffraction peak is $0.42^{\circ}$. The lowest resistivity ($2.64{\times}10^{-3}\;{\Omega}cm$) with the highest cartier concentration ($5.29{\times}10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$) and a Hall mobility of ($6.23\;cm^2/Vs$) are obtained in the AZO thin films deposited at $T=300^{\circ}C$ for 10 mTorr. The optical transmittance in the visible region is approximately 80%, regardless of process conditions. The optical band-gap depends on the Al doping level as the substrate temperature increases and the working pressure decrease. The optical band-gap widening is proportional to cartier concentration due to the Burstein-Moss effect.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.493-500
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• 1996

AZO transparent conducting thin films were fabricated by reactive DC magnetron sputtering method using Zn metla target containing 2 wt% of Al, and electrical and optical properties were investigated after heattreatment. Electrical resistivity was reduced 50% and had reached $1{\times}10^{-3}~3.5{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}cm$ by heat treatment. In the case of oxide AZO films, the resistivity of $10^{3}\;{\Omega}cm$ was also decreased to $2{\times}10^{-3}\;{\Omega}cm$ after heat treatment. The optical transmittance of AZO films deposited in the transition range was increased from 59.4 % to 77.4 % by $400^{\circ}C$, 30 min heat treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1072-1076
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• 2007

We prepared the Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin film on polyethersulfon (PES) without any substrate heating by Facing Targets Sputtering (FTS) system. FTS system has two different facing targets. One is ZnO doped the content of Al 2 wt% and the other is Zn in order to decrease resistivity. The electrical, structural and optical properties of AZO thin films were investigated. To evaluate the as-deposited thin film properties, we employed four-point probe (CMT-R100nw, Changmin), Surface profiler (Alpha-step, Tencor), UV/VIS spectrometer (HP), X-ray diffractometer (XRD, Rigaku) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM, Hitachi S-4700). As a result, We obtained that AZO thin film deposited on PES substrate at a DC Power of 150 W, working pressure of 1 mTorr and $O_2$ gas flow ratio of 0.2 exhibited the resistivity of $4.2{\times}10^{-4}\;[{\Omega}cm]$ and the optical transmittance of about 85 % in the visible range.