Correlations between 1/f noise and thermal treatment of Al-doped ZnO thin films deposited by direct current sputtering

Abstract

Al-doped ZnO thin films (AZO) have been deposited on amorphous glass substrates by DC sputtering at different substrate temperatures Ts. X-Ray diffraction results reveal that AZO thin films have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with (002) preferred orientation. (002) peaks indicate that the crystalline structure of the films is oriented with c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. Three-dimensional (3D) atomic force microscopy images of AZO thin films deposited on glass substrate at 200 °C, 300 °C, and 400 °C, respectively, shows the improvement of the crystallinity and the homogeneity of AZO thin films with Ts which is in agreement with the noise measurements. The noise was characterized between 1 Hz and 100 kHz and we have obtained 1/f spectra. The noise is very sensitive to the crystal structure especially to the orientation of the crystallites which is perpendicular to the substrate and to the grain boundaries which generate a high current flow and a sharp increase in noise. Through time, Rsh and [αμ]eff increase with the modification of the crystallinity of AZO thin films. Study of noise aging shows that the noise is more sensitive than resistivity for all AZO thin films.