Abstract
Bandgap enlarged Mg-doped aluminum zinc oxide (Mg-doped AZO) film is a potential transparent conducting oxide for applications in photonics devices. The oxide film normally deposited by sputtering, particularly using ceramic targets, while maintaining its pristine property for the film deposited using metallic targets is rarely addressed. This study investigated the optical and electrical properties of Mg-doped AZO films that were performed by a magnetron reactive co-sputtering method using metallic Mg and Al–Zn targets. Doping of Mg in the AZO significantly affects the electrical resistivity and optical transmission of the films because Mg tends to replace part of Zn lattice sites. The 1.2 at.% Mg-doped AZO film had an electrical resistivity of 7.9 × 10−4 Ω·cm, an optical transmittance of 92.6% in the visible light range, and a bandgap of 3.66 eV when the film was post-annealed at 600 °C. The Mg doping widens the bandgap and, thus, increases the transmittance of the AZO film. Because of the superior electrical and optical characteristics, the Mg-doped AZO films prepared using the metallic targets can be a reliable transparent conducting oxide for applications.
Highlights
Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have been widely used in many photonics applications, such as light-emitting devices, gas sensors, and laser diodes [1,2]
Structural, optical, and electrical properties of Mg-doped Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films prepared by the reactive
Structural, optical, and electrical properties of Mg-doped AZO films prepared by the reactive co-sputtering method, using metallic targets of Mg and Al–Zn, were systematically investigated
Summary
Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have been widely used in many photonics applications, such as light-emitting devices, gas sensors, and laser diodes [1,2]. The most common materials used for TCOs are metal oxides based on In2 O3 , ZnO, or SnO2 that were doped with an extra metal element acting as substitute atom to replace part of the lattice sites. Among these metal oxides, ZnO-based oxides usually have high transparency in the visible light region. ZnO enhances its electrical conductivity because the doped atom affects the local atomic configuration of the lattice and, generates oxygen vacancy-like defects [3]. A trace amount of Al doping is most frequently used to increase the electrical conductivity of the ZnO film. The doped Al3+ ions can replace part of Zn2+ lattice sites and create carriers owing to the valence number difference between Al3+ and
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