Abstract
In this study, Ga2O3-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were deposited on glass and flexible polyimide (PI) substrates at room temperature (300 K), 373 K, and 473 K by the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. After finding the deposition rate, all the GZO thin films with a nano-scale thickness of about 150 ± 10 nm were controlled by the deposition time. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that the GZO thin films were not amorphous and all exhibited the (002) peak, and field emission scanning electron microscopy showed that only nano-scale particles were observed. The dependences of the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the GZO thin films on different deposition temperatures and substrates were investigated. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was used to measure the elemental composition at the chemical and electronic states of the GZO thin films deposited on different substrates, which could be used to clarify the mechanism of difference in electrical properties of the GZO thin films. In this study, the XPS binding energy spectra of Ga2p3/2 and Ga2p1/2 peaks, Zn2p3/2 and Zn2p1/2 peaks, the Ga3d peak, and O1s peaks for GZO thin films on glass and PI substrates were well compared.
Highlights
Recent advances in nanotechnology have contributed to the development of photon upconversion materials as promising new-generation candidates of fluorescent bioprobes and spectral converters for biomedical and optoelectronic applications [1]
Because the Ga2O3-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films were deposited using a sputtering method in a pure Ar atmosphere, we believe that substrate would be the important factor that would influence the properties of the deposited thin films
As RT (Figure 1a,b) and 373 K were used as the deposition temperatures, the GZO thin films deposited on glass substrates had less pores than those deposited on PI substrates
Summary
Recent advances in nanotechnology have contributed to the development of photon upconversion materials as promising new-generation candidates of fluorescent bioprobes and spectral converters for biomedical and optoelectronic applications [1]. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) are the major materials for ZnO-based thin films, because they present favorable electrical properties and can be investigated as indium-free TCO thin films. TCO thin films deposited on different substrates [13], for example glass and polyimide (PI), are widely used throughout the semiconductor and electronics industries. The dependences of the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the GZO thin films on different deposition temperatures and substrates were investigated. In order to clarify the mechanism of difference in electrical properties, we would investigate the change of the chemical structures of the GZO thin films deposited on different substrates by XPS
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