GROWTH OF AZO FILMS ON BUFFER LAYERS BY RF MAGNETRON SPUTTERING

Abstract

Al(2)O(3)-doped zinc oxide (in AZO, the Al(2)O(3) contents are approximately 2 wt.%) films have been grown by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at room temperature under varied sputtering pressures ranging from 3.5-15 mTorr. The electrical resistivity of AZO films is about 2.22 x 10(-3) Omega cm (sheet resistance similar to 89 Omega/square for a thickness similar to 250 nm), and the visible range transmittance is a bout 80% at the argon sputtering pressure of 15 mTorr and a RF power of 100 W. This study analyzes the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of AZO thin films grown on soda-lime glass substrate with 2, 5, and 10 nm thick Al buffer layers (and SiO(2) buffer). For the films deposited on the 2 nm thick Al buffer layer, we obtained ac-axis-oriented AZO/Al thin film on glass with the XRD full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.31 and root mean square (RMS) surface roughness of about 3.22 nm. The lowest resistivity of 9.46 x 10(-4) Omega cm (sheet resistance similar to 37.87 Omega/square for a thickness similar to 250 nm) and a high transmittance (80%) were obtained by applying a 2 nm thick Al buffer layer. In contrast, the resistivity was slightly increased by applying the SiO(2) buffer layer.