Indium-nitrogen codoped zinc oxide thin film deposited by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis on n-(111) Si substrate: The effect of film thickness

Abstract

Indium-nitrogen codoped zinc oxide (INZO) thin films were fabricated by spray pyrolysis deposition technique on n-(111) Si substrate with different film thicknesses at 450°C using a precursor containing zinc acetate, ammonium acetate, and indium nitrate with 1: 3: 0.05 at.% concentration. The morphology and structure studies were carried out by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The grain size of the films increased when increasing the film thickness. From XRD spectra, polycrystalline ZnO structure can be observed and the preferred orientation behavior varied from (002) to (101) as the film thickness increased. The concentration and mobility were investigated by Hall effect measurement. the p-type films with a hole mobility around 3 cm2V-1s-1 and hole concentration around 3×1019 cm-3 can be achieved with film thickness less than 385 nm. The n-type conduction with concentration 1×1020 cm-3 is observed for film with thickness 1089 nm. The defect states were characterized by photoluminescence. With temperature-dependent conductivity analysis, acceptor state with activation energy 0.139 eV dominate the p type conduction for thin INZO film. And the Zn-related shallow donors with activation energy 0.029 eV dominate the n-type conduction for the thick INZO film. © 2014 Cheng-Chang Yu et al.