Effects of rapid thermal annealing on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of Zr-doped ZnO thin films grown by atomic layer deposition

Jingjin Wu, Yinchao Zhao, Ce Zhou Zhao*, Li Yang, Qifeng Lu, Qian Zhang, Jeremy Smith, Yongming Zhao

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The 4 at. % zirconium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Zr) films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) were annealed at various temperatures ranging from 350 to 950 °C. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treated ZnO:Zr films have been evaluated to find out the stability limit. It was found that the grain size increased at 350 °C and decreased between 350 and 850 °C, while creeping up again at 850 °C. UV-vis characterization shows that the optical band gap shifts towards larger wavelengths. The Hall measurement shows that the resistivity almost keeps constant at low annealing temperatures, and increases rapidly after treatment at 750 °C due to the effect of both the carrier concentration and the Hall mobility. The best annealing temperature is found in the range of 350-550 °C. The ZnO:Zr film-coated glass substrates show good optical and electrical performance up to 550 °C during superstrate thin film solar cell deposition.

Original languageEnglish
Article number695
JournalMaterials
Volume9
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Aug 2016

Keywords

  • Atomic layer deposition
  • Rapid thermal annealing
  • Red-shift
  • Zr-doped ZnO

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