Study on ZnO:Al (ZAO) films by DC reaction magnetron sputtering

The high quality ZnO: A1 films were successfully produced by DC reaction magnetron sputtering technology. The Al-doping effect on electrical and optical properties and its scattering mechanism are discussed in detail. The analyses of X-ray diffractometer (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and high resolution Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) show that Al2O3 could be effectively removed by controlling oxygen flow and Al-doping concentration during deposition of ZnO: Al films. Zn, Al and oxygen elements are well distributed through the films. For highly degenerated ZnO:A1 semi-conductive thin films, the theoretical and experimental results reveal that the ionized impurity. scattering dominates the Hall mobility in the films in the low-temperature range, while the lattice vibration scattering becomes a major scattering mechanism in the high-temperature range. The grain boundary scattering only plays a major role in the ZAO films with small grain size (as compared to the electron mean free path). The photoelectric properties of ZAO films show that it has low resistivity ( ～ 5 × 10-4 Ωcm), and the transmittance in visible range and the reflectance in IR region are above 80% and 60%, respectively.