Recent Progress in Solution Processed Aluminum and co-Doped ZnO for Transparent Conductive Oxide Applications

Abstract

With the continuous growth in the optoelectronic industry, the demand for novel and highly efficient materials is also growing. Specifically, the demand for the key component of several optoelectronic devices, i.e., transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), is receiving significant attention. The major reason behind this is the dependence of the current technology on only one material—indium tin oxide (ITO). Even though ITO still remains a highly efficient material, its high cost and the worldwide scarcity of indium creates an urgency for finding an alternative. In this regard, doped zinc oxide (ZnO), in particular, solution-processed aluminum doped ZnO (AZO), is emerging as a leading candidate to replace ITO due to its high abundant and exceptional physical/chemical properties. In this mini review, recent progress in the development of solution-processed AZO is presented. Beside the systematic review of the literature, the solution processable approaches used to synthesize AZO and the effect of aluminum doping content on the functional properties of AZO are also discussed. Moreover, the co-doping strategy (doping of aluminum with other elements) used to further improve the properties of AZO is also discussed and reviewed in this article.

Atomic layer deposition of Al-doped ZnO nanomembrane with in situ monitoring

“…AZO film can be grown through sol-gel method [19], magnetron sputtering [20], metal-organic chemical vapor deposition [21], pulsed-laser deposition [22] and atomic layer deposition (ALD) [23]. Among these, sol-gel is a conventional, simple and low-cost method suitable for depositing AZO films on flat substrates with relatively low quality [24]. However, it is challenging to achieve uniform deposition on three-dimensional (3D) structures.…”