Abstract
Al-doped ZnO has attracted much attention as a transparent electrode. The graphene-like ZnO monolayer as a two-dimensional nanostructure material shows exceptional properties compared to bulk ZnO. Here, through first-principle calculations, we found that the transparency in the visible light region of Al-doped ZnO monolayer is significantly enhanced compared to the bulk counterpart. In particular, the 12.5 at% Al-doped ZnO monolayer exhibits the highest visible transmittance of above 99%. Further, the electrical conductivity of the ZnO monolayer is enhanced as a result of Al doping, which also occurred in the bulk system. Our results suggest that Al-doped ZnO monolayer is a promising transparent conducting electrode for nanoscale optoelectronic device applications.
Highlights
Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films have been studied for various photo-electronic devices such as displays, piezoelectric transducers, and solar cells, due to their distinctive combination of optical transparency in the visible spectrum and high electrical conductivity [1,2,3,4]
Al-doped ZnO (AZO) has been considered to be one of the best candidates as transparent electrode in thin film solar cells and flat-panel displays due to the lower cost arising from the abundance of Zn and Al, and better optical transmission in the visible region [6]
It is found that the lattice constant a of Al-doped ZnO monolayer decreases with increasing Al concentration
Summary
Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films have been studied for various photo-electronic devices such as displays, piezoelectric transducers, and solar cells, due to their distinctive combination of optical transparency in the visible spectrum and high electrical conductivity [1,2,3,4]. Tin doped indium oxide (ITO) is the most widely used TCO in commercial application. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) has been considered to be one of the best candidates as transparent electrode in thin film solar cells and flat-panel displays due to the lower cost arising from the abundance of Zn and Al, and better optical transmission in the visible region [6]. The doping of different impurity atoms can lead to an improvement in the electrical and optical properties
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