The fabrication of bifunctional zinc-oxide thin films remains a challenge. Here, we investigate the effects of aluminum-vanadium co-doping on the electrical conductivity and the optical transparency of zinc oxide films. We find that by co-doping, aluminum enhances film transparency via zinc-vacancy-defect substitution, while vanadium enhances electrical conductivity. The roles of two dopants and defects are interesting information that is useful to applications of transparent conductive oxides.

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Zinc oxide has attracted attention because of its unique properties that can be modified by doping. In this paper, we investigate the effects of oxygen addition to argon plasma during the sputtering of vanadium and aluminum co-doped zinc oxides. We find that reactive sputtering with oxygen is effective at reducing defects that degrade electrical conductivity and optical transmittance. Further, the effect of oxygen is enhanced when both aluminum and vanadium are co-doped in zinc oxide, resulting in compensation of the defects. Under an optimum condition, an electrical resistivity of 1.2 mΩcm and a 78% of transmittance were achieved.