New Transparent Conducting Al-doped ZnO Film Preparation Techniques for Improving Resistivity Distribution in Magnetron Sputtering Deposition

For the purpose of substituting transparent conducting Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films for indium–tin-oxide (ITO) transparent electrodes, investigations have been conducted to improve resistivity distribution using magnetron sputtering techniques. New techniques, such as adding an rf (13.56 MHz) component to dc magnetron sputtering depositions with or without the introduction of hydrogen gas into the deposition chamber, resulted in a considerable improvement of resistivity distribution. A resistivity as low as 5 × 10 -4 Ω cm and a more uniform resistivity distribution on the substrate surface were obtained in AZO films prepared with a thickness of 200 nm on glass substrates at a temperature of 200 °C.