Electrical and Optical Properties of Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Films on a Glass Substrate Prepared by a Toroidal Magnetron Sputtering System at Low Temperature

Abstract

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were prepared on a glass substrate by employing a toroidal magnetron sputtering system to enhance both resistivity and transparency. The glass substrate temperature was sustained below 50 °C during the deposition of 200 nm thick AZO without an additional heating system for the substrate, and no pre- or postannealing process was carried out. This scenario is quite desirable to reduce damage to the thermally sensitive substrate during the conventional AZO thin film process; nonetheless, significant crystallinity was observed in the XRD analysis due to energy transfer by sputtered ions. The electrical resistivity was approximately 8.3×10−4 Ωcm, and the average transmittance was 90.43%, which were achieved under optimized conditions, with the ratio between the O2 and Ar gas flow rates varied under a specific applied DC power.