Room-temperature deposition of Al-doped ZnO films by oxygen radical-assisted pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

Transparent and conductive Al-doped ZnO films have been deposited at room temperature by oxygen radical-assisted pulsed laser deposition. An average optical transmittance of more than 86% (0.7 μm film thickness) in the wavelength range 400–800 nm and resistivity as low as 5×10 −4 Ω cm were obtained from films deposited using a radical oxygen source. The surface roughness of the ZnO films measured by means of atomic force microscopy was found to be below 1 nm, suggesting that soft deposition techniques with low kinetic energy sources can make possible the deposition of high-quality transparent conducting ZnO films, even at room temperature.