Fabrication of Al-Doped ZnO Film with High Conductivity Induced by Photocatalytic Activity

Abstract

We have fabricated Al-doped ZnO films by a spin-spray method, achieving high conductivity by Al-ion doping and photocatalytic activity of the ZnO. The surface morphology of the as-deposited films was varied by changing the Al concentration and addition of citrate ions. As-deposited Al-doped ZnO film without citrate ions showed rod array structure with increasing rod width as the Al concentration was increased. Meanwhile, Al-doped ZnO film deposited with addition of citrate ions changed to exhibit dense and continuous surface morphology with high transmittance of 85%. The lowest resistivity recorded for undoped and Al-doped ZnO film was 2.1 × 10−2 Ω cm and 5.9 × 10−3 Ω cm, after ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. The reason for the decreased resistivity is thought to be that Al-ion doping and the photocatalytic activity of ZnO contributed to improve the conductivity.