Comparative study of the sintering process and thin film sputtering of AZO, GZO and AGZO ceramics targets

Abstract

Aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) and gallium doped ZnO (GZO) are most popular transparent conductive oxide materials, and aluminum-gallium co-doped ZnO (AGZO) has potential to be superior to AZO and GZO in various properties. In order to clarify their differences, we have studied the whole manufacture process, including powder production, target sintering and thin film sputtering. The morphologies, densification, structural and electrical properties of sintered targets were comparatively investigated. To verify the qualities of thin films, the most conductive targets were applied for magnetron sputtering, and the electrical and optical properties of thin films were characterized and analyzed in detail.Experimental results showed that when co-doped by 1.5mol% Al and 0.5mol% Ga, the Al–Ga co-doped ZnO targets had higher maximum relative densities and lower minimum resistivities than the 2mol% Al doped ZnO and 0.5mol% Ga doped ZnO targets. In addition, the AGZO thin film had better electrical properties than the other two thin films. The lowest resistivity of 8.12×10−4Ωcm was achieved on AGZO thin films deposited at 200°C.