Abstract
The effects of Ar gas flow rate during the sputtering deposition of Ga-doped ZnO thin films, which were grown on polyethersulfone substrates, on their physical properties were investigated. For measurements of X-ray diffraction, samples deposited under higher Ar gas flux showed the relevant ZnO (002) peak while samples deposited under lower Ar gas flux revealed ZnGa2O4 (311) secondary phase. The samples showed a quite strong dependency of the electrical resistivity on the Ar gas flux; i .e., samples deposited under higher Ar gas flux showed a lower resistivity, but samples deposited under lower Ar gas flux showed a quite high resistivity. This result was confirmed to originate from the insulating behavior of the unexpectedly formed ZnGa2O4 spinels. The formation of ZnGa2O4 spinels might result from the generation of metastable radicals during the sputtering process because supplying an unduly insufficient amount of Ar gas gives rise to a bombardment of metastable species from the target material.
Published Version
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