Stoichiometry Control of ZnO Thin Film by Adjusting Working Gas Ratio during Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

Li, Chaoyang; Wang, Dapeng; Li, Zeming; Li, Xin; Kawaharamura, Toshiyuki; Furuta, Mamoru

doi:10.1155/2013/547271

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Therefore, oxidized, and non-oxidized sample we observe an increase in the mobility from 7.90 cm 2 /Vs to 39.0 cm 2 /Vs. However, the increase in resistivity from unoxidized ZnO and Oxidized ZnO happened due to decrease in oxygen vacancies present in the film, since the main conduction mechanism in ZnO thin films was due to oxygen vacancies [11], [13][14][15][16][17]. This is explained confirmed from the results where the number of charge carrier decreases when the ZnO thin film is oxidized.…”

Section: Fig 1 Optical Micrograph Of Azo Thin Filmmentioning

confidence: 55%

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A Study of Aluminum Doped ZnO Thin Films Developed via a Hybrid Method Involving Sputter Deposition and Wet Chemical Synthesis

Ahmad

Khan²,

Rehman

et al. 2022

Advances in Science and Technology

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Transparent conducting oxides (TCO) are semiconducting materials that are electrically conductive as well as optically transparent thus making them suitable for application in photovoltaics, transparent heat transfer windows, electrochromic windows, flexible display, and transparent electronics. One of the methods to enhance the conductivity of metal oxides is doping, however, it can adversely affect the optical transparency of metal oxide. Aluminum (Al) doped zinc (Zn) oxide (AZO) is an important TCO material whose optoelectronic properties heavily rely on the Al doping level. There are various methods to develop AZO thin films. However, since Al and Zn are high vapor pressure materials, and their precise content control isn’t that easy, that’s why we dedicated this study to devise a facile method of Al doping into the ZnO structure. We report a twostep synthesis route to develop AZO thin films over glass substrates. Sub stoichiometric zinc oxide (ZnOx) thin films were sputter deposited over glass employing RF magnetron sputtering at 70W and 9 x 10-3 Torr Ar pressure. To mitigate Zn losses during annealing at 450 °C, the films were first oxidized up to 200 °C in air so as to convert ZnOx into stoichiometric ZnO. To incorporate Al into the ZnO structure, Al was spin coated on top of ZnO from its stabilized sol of 0.07 molar aluminum nitrate nonahydrate in ethanol. The samples were subsequently annealed at 450 °C for 2h in air with a controlled heating ramp of 3 °C/min. The film morphology, microstructure, electronic, and optical characteristics were explored employing scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, Hall effect measurements, and UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometry, respectively. We found that both the Al and oxygen (O) content affect the optoelectronic behavior of AZO. Even without Al doping, O deficient samples were found to be sufficiently conductive, however, the ZnOx is less transparent relative to O rich stoichiometric ZnO. Furthermore, if ZnOx is annealed at higher temperatures, it causes Zn losses, since Zn is a relatively high vapor pressure material. It degrades the film morphology as well. Once we have ZnO we can confidently treat it at 450 °C to allow Al diffusion into the interiors of the ZnO film. We found that AZO produced via this method is sufficiently conductive as well as transparent.

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Section: Fig 1 Optical Micrograph Of Azo Thin Filmmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…The table gives ZnO thin film deposition parameters implemented in this study. The films prepared by rf sputtering were sub stoichiometric [11], therefore, one sample was oxidized to compare the properties. Hence, the film it was annealed at 150 °C for 1 hour and then at 250 °C for 1 hour both in air atmosphere.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Study of Aluminum Doped ZnO Thin Films Developed via a Hybrid Method Involving Sputter Deposition and Wet Chemical Synthesis

Ahmad

Khan²,

Rehman

et al. 2022

Advances in Science and Technology

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show abstract

“…34 Therefore, we are likely to manage the stoichiometry of the ZnO film basically by modifying the ambient working gas in RF plasma deposition. 35 3.3. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) Analysis.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is significant to mention that an alteration of RF plasma power can change the ionization of ambient argon gases, the kinetic energy of bombarding ions, kinetic energy of atoms, reactive species, and the substrate temperature . Therefore, we are likely to manage the stoichiometry of the ZnO film basically by modifying the ambient working gas in RF plasma deposition …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Radio Frequency Plasma Power on the Structure, Crystallinity, Dislocation Density, and the Energy Band Gap of ZnO Nanostructure

et al. 2021

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The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of radio frequency (RF) plasma power on the morphology, crystal structure, elemental chemical composition, and optical properties of ZnO nanostructure using a direct current magnetron sputtering technique. This study emphasized that the growth rate and surface morphology of the polycrystalline ZnO were enhanced as the radio frequency (RF) plasma power increased. This can be observed by fixing other parameters such as the growth time, substrate temperature, and chamber partial pressure. The RF plasma power alteration from 150 to 300 W can produce uniform nanograin, spheroid, and nanorods. Additionally, the RF plasma power alteration leads to the alteration in the ZnO nanorod diameter from 14 to 202 nm. It was observed that the XRD intensities are increased at higher plasma powers. This, perhaps, can be inferred from the transformation of the granular microcrystals to the needlelike or platelike large crystals, as already examined using SEM images. This also has an impact on the average crystalline size, which increased from 10 to 40 nm on increasing the RF plasma power. Moreover, the increase of the RF plasma power has an obvious impact upon the optical band-gap energy, which was accordingly decreased from 3.26 to 3.22 eV. Finally, the absorption band edge was shifted to a lower-energy region due to the quantum size effect at the nanorange.

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“…The sputter rate goes down as the oxygen content increases from 3% to 50%. Indeed, having less argon in the process atmosphere, which acts as the main sputter gas, generally leads to lower sputter rates [21,22]. However, high oxygen content is generally needed to avoid oxygen substoichiometry [23].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reactive Dual Magnetron Sputtering: A Fast Method for Preparing Stoichiometric Microcrystalline ZnWO4 Thin Films

et al. 2021

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Thin films of ZnWO4, a promising photocatalytic and scintillator material, were deposited for the first time using a reactive dual magnetron sputtering procedure. A ZnO target was operated using an RF signal, and a W target was operated using a DC signal. The power on the ZnO target was changed so that it would match the sputtering rate of the W target operated at 25 W. The effects of the process parameters were characterized using optical spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy, including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that stoichiometric microcrystalline ZnWO4 thin films could be obtained, by operating the ZnO target during the sputtering procedure at a power of 55 W and by post-annealing the resulting thin films for at least 10 h at 600 °C. As FTO coated glass substrates were used, annealing led as well to the incorporation of Na, resulting in n+ doped ZnWO4 thin films.

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Stoichiometry Control of ZnO Thin Film by Adjusting Working Gas Ratio during Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

Cited by 10 publications

References 12 publications

A Study of Aluminum Doped ZnO Thin Films Developed via a Hybrid Method Involving Sputter Deposition and Wet Chemical Synthesis

A Study of Aluminum Doped ZnO Thin Films Developed via a Hybrid Method Involving Sputter Deposition and Wet Chemical Synthesis

Impact of Radio Frequency Plasma Power on the Structure, Crystallinity, Dislocation Density, and the Energy Band Gap of ZnO Nanostructure

Reactive Dual Magnetron Sputtering: A Fast Method for Preparing Stoichiometric Microcrystalline ZnWO4 Thin Films

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