Preparation of undoped and indium doped ZnO thin films by pulsed laser deposition method

Abstract

An original modification of the standard Pulse Laser Deposition (PLD) method for preparing both undoped and indium doped zinc oxide (ZnO:In) thin films at low substrate temperature is proposed. This preparation method does not demand any further post-deposition annealing treatment of the grown films. The developed method allows to grow thin films at low substrate temperature that prevents them from the considerable loss of their intrinsic electrical and optical properties. The influence of deposition parameters on the electrical and optical parameters of the undoped and the indium doped ZnO thin films is also analysed.

Fabrication of zinc indium oxide thin films and effect of post annealing on structural, chemical and electrical properties

“…The increment in grain size can be attributed to improvement of crystallinity with increasing concentration of In 2 O 3 and post annealing. The same tendency was observed by Changhyun et al [22], Joseph et al [23], Kotlyarchuk et al [24] Lee et al [25] and Paraguay et al [26].…”

The effect of indium doping on structural, electrical conductivity, photoconductivity and density of states properties of ZnO films

“…When indium is incorporated, the intensity of (0 0 2) peak increases, indicating that the c-axis of the grains became uniformly perpendicular to the substrate surface. This suggests that the surface energy of (0 0 2) plane is the lowest in ZnO crystal [7,10,22,23,25]. For 4 at.% doping level, the crystallinity of the films is deteriorated and we obtained an amorphous structure.…”

“…The low resistivity of IZO film is due to a combined effect of the deviation from stoichiometry and doping. The indium atoms can take interstitial positions in the crystal lattice, In 3+ atoms substitute Zn 2+ atoms and act as donors [7,9]. The resistivity of the films increases for high indium concentration and this is attributed to disorder produced in the lattice.…”

“…Also it can be used in gas sensors [4]. ZnO thin films have been deposited by many techniques such as sputtering [5], chemical vapour deposition [6], sol-gel [7], laser ablation [8], and spray pyrolysis [9]. The last technique has been widely used, because it is simple, more reproducible, without toxicity and cost effective.…”

Enhanced photoemission from nanoscale agglomerations in Li co-activated Y2O3:Eu3+ thin films

“…As the oxygen partial pressure increases, collisions of the ablated species increases, which results in the lowering of kinetic energy as well as the mobility of ablated species on the substrate surface resulting in poor crystallinity [22]. It is evident that low oxygen partial pressure produces films with much better crystallization which may be due to a change in oxygen vacancy concentration and the related increase in the mobility of atoms which is of prime importance through diffusional process induced relaxation of the nanostructures during the growth process [23].…”