Structural and electrical properties of Al doped ZnO thin films deposited at room temperature on poly(vinilidene fluoride) substrates

Abstract

Transparent, conducting, Al-doped ZnO films have been deposited, by dc and pulsed dc magnetron sputtering, on glass and electroactive polymer (poly (vinylidene fluoride)-PVDF) substrates. Samples have been prepared at room temperature varying the argon sputtering pressure, after optimizing other processing conditions. All ZnO:Al films are polycrystalline and preferentially oriented along the [002] axis. Electrical resistivity around 3.3x10-3 Ω.cm and optical transmittance of ~85% at 550 nm have been obtained for AZOY films deposited on glass, while a resistivity of 1.7x10-2 Ω.cm and transmittance of ~70% at 550 nm have been attained in similar coatings on PVDF. One of the main parameters affecting film resistivity seems to be the roughness of the substrate.

GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS AND PROPERTIES OF AL-DOPED ZnO THIN FILMS BY DC MAGNETRON SPUTTERING FROM AZOY® TARGET

“…4d, is around 73.2 eV whose value lies between that of Al 2 O 3 film (74.8 eV) and metallic aluminum (72.7 eV). Consequently, it could be predicted that Al atoms substitute for Zn atoms in AZO films which could act as Al donors [20]. Minami et al [12] showed that, in the resultant AZO films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering with sintered ceramic target, the aluminum was always introduced in the form of Al 3+ and that the dopant content in the film was irrelevant to T s below 400 • C, which is just the case in our study.…”

“…In contrast, the asymmetric Auger signals, Zn L 3 M 45 M 45 in Fig. 4c comprise a higher energy peak (∼497 eV) which are ascribed to the bonding of Zn with oxygen in the ZnO lattice and, in contrast, a shoulder peak (∼494 eV) which corresponds to the existence of Zn interstitials in the films that are one of the major sources of free electrons in doped ZnO films [15,19,20]. Similarly, there is no T s dependence on the intensity of Auger signals.…”

“…Figure 7a shows the optical transmittance of the films. The variations in transmittance are dependent on the films thickness which is ascribed to the interference phenomena [20]. It is noteworthy that the transmittance for the AZO films in the NIR region improved considerably as compared to those using alloy targets by reactive magnetron sputtering [7,26] and even slightly higher than those using Al-doped ZnO (1 wt.%) ceramic targets by RF sputtering [27].…”

Strain dependence electrical resistance and cohesive strength of ITO thin films deposited on electroactive polymer

“…In the case of coatings deposited on PVDF, the minimum value for the film resistivity was 1.7x10 -3 Ω⋅cm. The roughness of the PVDF substrate leads to a higher resistivity when compared to the values obtained for films deposited on glass [24].…”

Electrical and surface properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering for organic light emitting diode as anode material

“…Representative TCO films are indium tin oxide (ITO), zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) [3][4][5]. Among the TCO films investigated, ITO is the most widely used material owing to its good conductivity, low electrical resistivity, wide band gap (~3.5 eV) and high transmission in the visible range and near-IR regions of the spectrum [1,2].…”