A study of the electrical and optical properties of AZO thin film by controlling pulse frequency of HiPIMS

Abstract

The transparent conductive oxide (TCO) which is AZO thin film was prepared by controlling pulse frequency at 100 Hz to 900 Hz using high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). All samples were deposited on silicon (100) and glass slide substrates which the thickness was kept constant at 400 nm. The surface morphology was investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), crystallinity by Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GI-XRD), optical transparency by UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometry, and electrical properties using Hall effect instrument. It was found that the AZO films exhibited dense columnar structure. The GI-XRD patterns of AZO films demonstrated the crystal growth direction which was preferred the hexagonal wurtzite structure at (002) and (103) planes. The AZO film prepared by using 700 Hz of frequency (duty cycle 7%) showed the average visible transmittance (Tavg) at 82% in the visible region (380 nm to 780 nm). Additionally, the resistivity, high mobility and carrier concentration of AZO film were found to be 3.0 × 10-3 Ω.cm-1, 10.53 cm2∙Vs-1 and 1.82 × 1020∙cm-3, respectively. The fabrication of AZO film presented excellent electrical and optical properties which could be applied in several optoelectronic applications.