• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.339-344
• /
• 2017

An all-transparent photodetector was fabricated by structuring $Cu_2O$/ZnO/AZO/ITO on a glass substrate. The visible-range transmittance was as high as 80%, which ensures clear vision forhuman eyes. High-transparency metal conductive oxides (p-type $Cu_2O$ and n-type ZnO) were appliedto form the transparent p/n junction. The functional AZO layer was adopted to improve the transparent photodetector performance between the ZnO and ITO, improving the photoresponses because of its electrical conductivity. To clarify the AZO functionality, a comparator device was prepared without the AZO layer in the formation of $Cu_2O$/ZnO/ITO/Glass. The $Cu_2O$/ZnO/AZO/ITO device provided a rectifying ratio of 113.46, significantly better than the 9.44 of the $Cu_2O$/ZnO/ITO device. In addition, the $Cu_2O$/ZnO/AZO/ITO device's photoresponses at short wavelengths were better than those of the comparator. The functioning AZO layer provides ahigh-performing transparent Cu oxide photodetector and may suggest a route for the design of efficient photoelectric devices.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.227-234
• /
• 1997

The stabilities of ITO, AZO, and SZO have been studied in hydrogen plasma. We used the ITO films produced from Corning LTD, and AZO, SZO films made by rf magnetron sputtering methods. These films were loaded in PECVD chamber and exposed to hydrogen plasma. For ITO, the optical transmittance was decreased as sample surface temperature and exposure time were increased during hydrogen plasma treatment. The transmittance of ITO dropped to 10~20% and its conductivity disappeared completely after exposing to hydrogen plasma for 30 minutes at $300^{\circ}C$. For AZO and SZO, there was no optical loss but the optical gap was widened due to the hydrogen incorporation into the film, indicating Burstein-Moss effect. Also the surface morphology of AZO and SZO was stable in hydrogen ambient but ITO showed rough surface due to the reduction of metal elements.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.1067-1072
• /
• 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 Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.47 no.7
• /
• pp.8-16
• /
• 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.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.11 no.10
• /
• pp.889-894
• /
• 2001

2wt% $Al_2O_3-doped$ ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited on sapphire (0001) single crystal substrate by parellel type rf magnetron sputtering at 55$0^{\circ}C$. The as-grown AZO thin films was polycrystalline and showed only broad deep defect-level photoluminescence (PL). In order to examine the change of PL property, AZO thin films were annealed in $N_2$ (N-AZO) and $H_2$ (H-AZO) at the temperature of $600^{\circ}C$~$1000^{\circ}C$ through rapid thermal annealing. After annealed at $800^{\circ}C$, N-AZO shows near band edge emission (NBE) with very small deep-level emission, and then N-AZO annealed at $900^{\circ}C$ shows only sharp NBE with 219 meV FWHM. In Comparison with N-AZO, H-AZO exhibits very interesting PL features. After $600^{\circ}C$ annealing, deep defect-level emission was quire quenched and NBE around 382 nm (3.2 eV) was observed, which can be explained by the $H_2$passivation effect. At elevated temperature, two interesting peaks corresponding to violet (406 nm, 3.05 eV) and blue (436 nm, 2.84 eV) emission was firstly observed in AZO thin films. Moreover, peculiar PL peak around 694 nm (1.78 eV) is also firstly observed in all the H-AZO thin films and this is believed good evidence of hydrogenation of AZO. Based on defect-level scheme calculated by using the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital (FP-LMTO), the emission 3.2 eV, 3.05 eV, 3.84 eV and 1.78 eV of H-AZO are substantially deginated as exciton emission, transition from conduction band maximum to $V_{ Zn},$ from $Zn_i$, to valence band maximum $(V_{BM})$ and from $V_{o} to V_BM}$, respectively.

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

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.47 no.2
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2010

In this study, AZO (Al: 3 wt%) thin films have been prepared on PES Plastic substrates at various working pressure (5~20 mTorr), $O_2$ gas flow rate(0~3%) and the fixed substrate temperature of 200 f by using the RF magnetron sputtering and their optical and electrical properties have been studied. The XRD measurement shows that AZO thin films exhibit c-axis preferred orientation. From the results of AFM measurements, it is known that the lowest surface roughness (3.49 nm) is obtained for the AZO thin film fabricated at 5 mTorr of working pressure and 3% of $O_2$ gas flow rate. The optical transmittance of AZO thin films is measured as 80% in the visible region. We observe that the energy band gap of AZO thin films increases with decreasing the working pressure and the $O_2$ gas flow rate. This phenomenon is due to the Burstein-Moss effect. Hall measurement shows that the maximum carrier concentration ($2.63\;{\times}\;10^{20}\;cm^{-3}$) and the minimum resistivity ($4.35\;{\times}\;10^{-3}\;{\Omega}cm$) are obtained for the AZO thin film fabricated at 5mTorr of working pressure and 0% of $O_2$ gas flow rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.08a
• /
• pp.282-282
• /
• 2012

본 연구에서 SiOC 박막을 제작하기 위해서 RF 마그네트론 스퍼터링법을 이용하여 유량별 RF 파워의 변화에 따라서 AZO 박막을 성장시켰으며 박막의 광학적 특성을 조사하였고 투명 전도성 박막으로써 AZO 박막을 SiOC 박막 위에 성장시켜서 광학적인 특성을 조사하였다. Si 웨이퍼의 종류에 따라서 광학적인 특성에 조금의 변화가 있는 것을 확인하였으며, n-type Si의 경우 electron transition에 의한 emission 특성이 달라지는 것에 비하여 상대적으로 p-type Si의 경우 변화가 거의 없는 것으로 나타났다. 일반적으로 사용되는 SiO2 산화막 위에 증착한 AZO 박막에 비하여 SiOC 박막 위에 증착할 경우 빛의 흡수가 많이 일어나는 것을 확인할 수 있었으며, AZO/SiOC 박막의 반사도 역시 많이 감소하였으며, 이러한 전기적인 특성은 태양전지에서 전면전극으로 사용할 경우 반사방지막으로서의 특징도 나타낸다는 것을 의미한다. 스퍼터 방법에 의한 증착법은 낮은 온도에서도 공정이 가능하다는 장점이 있으며, 절연특성이 우수한 SiOC 박막을 AZO 박막의 보호막으로 사용할 경우 용도에 따라서 우수한 특성을 나타낼 수 있음을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.192-192
• /
• 2009

AZO films were prepared by $Ar:H_2$ gas RF magnetron sputtering system with a AZO (2wt% $Al_2O_3$) ceramic target at a low temperature of $100^{\circ}C$. To investigate the influence of $H_2$ flow ratio on the properties of AZO films, $H_2$ flow ratio was changed from 0.5% to 2%. As a result, the AZO films deposited with 1% $H_2$ addition showed electrical properties with a resistivity of $5.06{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$. The spectrophotometer-measurements showed the transmittance of 86.5% was obtained by the film deposited with $H_2$ flow ratio of 1% in the range of 940nm for GaAs/GaAlAs LED.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.24-24
• /
• 2009

투명전극 (TCO Transparent Conductive Oxide)은 Solar cell, Touch panel, Sensor 등 많은 분야에 이용되어지고 있다. ZnO 그리고 $SnO_2$는 ITO룰 대체하기 위하여 오래전부터 연구가 되어지고 있다. 하지만 ZnO가 가지고 있는 많은 장점에도 불구하고 ITO를 대체하기 위한 전기적 특성이 충분하지 않다. 따라서 ZnO에 Al를 도핑하는 등 다양한 연구가 진행되어왔다. 본 실험은 우수한 광학특성 및 전기적 (10-5) 특성을 확보하기 위하여 AZO/Ag/AZO 다층박막구조 형성하였다. 또한 염료감응 태양전지에 적용하기 위하여 다층박막구조를 이용한 안정성 테스트를 진행하였다.