Transparent and conductive Al/F and in co-doped ZnO thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis

Abstract

In doped ZnO (IZO), In-Al co-doped ZnO (IAZO) and In-F co-doped ZnO (IFZO) were deposited on glass substrates at 350 °C by spray pyrolysis technique. The structural, optical and electrical properties of as-deposited thin films were investigated and compared. A polycrystalline and (002) oriented wurtzite crystal structure was confirmed by X-ray patterns for all films; and the full width at half -maximum (FWHM) of (002) diffraction peak increased after co-doping. The investigation of the optical properties was performed using Uv-vis spectroscopy. The average transmittances of all the films were between 70 and 85%. Hall Effect measurements showed that the electrical conductivity of co-doped films increased as compared with IZO thin film. The highest conductivity of about 16.39-1cm-1was obtained for as-deposited IFZO thin film. In addition, the thin films were annealed at 350 °C for two hour under Ar atmosphere and their optical, electrical properties and the associated photoluminescence (PL) responses of selected films were analysed. After annealing, the electrical conductivity of all thin films was improved and the optical transmittance remained above 70%. Room temperature PL revealed that the annealed IAZO thin film had a strong green emission than that of IZO film.