Conducting and Optical Properties of Transparent Conducting Indium-Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Films by Sol-Gel Processing
Transparent conducting oxides were successfully prepared from mixed zinc nitrate hexahydrate and indium nitrate hydrate solutions in ethylene glycol using sol-gel technique. The In content in the film was varied (0, 2, 10, 20, 40, 75 and 100 atom %). Films were prepared by spin coating of the liquid precursors followed by thermal decomposition at 400° C after each layer. According to X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, the pure ZnO and pure InO films (0 and at 100 % In) were crystalline as-deposited. The crystallinity was suppressed in mixed compositions such that the films with compositions between 10 and 75 at % were amorphous. All the films were transparent with the transmission cut-off frequency near 400 nm, which is characteristic of TCO materials. All as-deposited films were conductive with 0 and 100 atom % In having the lowest resistivities. The resistivity of all compositions were improved by post-deposition reducing anneal in pure Ar at 300° C. The lowest resistivity of 0.2 Ωcm was obtained for the pure ZnO after Ar anneal. It was two-orders of magnitude higher than reported in the literature for the In-doped ZnO, which was attributed to the low processing temperature. The resistivities of as-deposited and annealed inmore » Ar films were increased by consequent air anneal at 300° C.« less