Herodotou Stephania, Treharne Robert E, Durose Ken, Tatlock Gordon J, Potter Richard J
Centre for Materials and Structures, School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69 3GH, UK.
Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy, University of Liverpool, Liverpool. L69 7ZF, UK.
Materials (Basel). 2015 Oct 27;8(10):7230-7240. doi: 10.3390/ma8105369.
Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), with high optical transparency (≥85%) and low electrical resistivity (10 Ω·cm) are used in a wide variety of commercial devices. There is growing interest in replacing conventional TCOs such as indium tin oxide with lower cost, earth abundant materials. In the current study, we dope Zr into thin ZnO films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to target properties of an efficient TCO. The effects of doping (0-10 at.% Zr) were investigated for ~100 nm thick films and the effect of thickness on the properties was investigated for 50-250 nm thick films. The addition of Zr ions acting as electron donors showed reduced resistivity (1.44 × 10 Ω·cm), increased carrier density (3.81 × 10 cm), and increased optical gap (3.5 eV) with 4.8 at.% doping. The increase of film thickness to 250 nm reduced the electron carrier/photon scattering leading to a further reduction of resistivity to 7.5 × 10 Ω·cm and an average optical transparency in the visible/near infrared (IR) range up to 91%. The improved n-type properties of ZnO: Zr films are promising for TCO applications after reaching the targets for high carrier density (>10 cm), low resistivity in the order of 10 Ω·cm and high optical transparency (≥85%).
透明导电氧化物（TCO）具有高光学透明度（≥85%）和低电阻率（10Ω·cm），被广泛应用于各种商业设备中。人们越来越有兴趣用成本更低、储量丰富的材料取代传统的TCO，如氧化铟锡。在当前的研究中，我们将锆掺杂到通过原子层沉积（ALD）生长的氧化锌薄膜中，以实现高效TCO的性能目标。研究了掺杂（0 - 10原子%锆）对约100纳米厚薄膜的影响，并研究了厚度对50 - 250纳米厚薄膜性能的影响。作为电子供体的锆离子的添加显示，在4.8原子%的掺杂量下，电阻率降低（1.44×10Ω·cm），载流子密度增加（3.81×10cm），光学带隙增加（3.5eV）。薄膜厚度增加到250纳米减少了电子载流子/光子散射，导致电阻率进一步降低至7.5×10Ω·cm，在可见光/近红外（IR）范围内的平均光学透明度高达91%。在达到高载流子密度（>10cm）、低电阻率（10Ω·cm量级）和高光学透明度（≥85%）的目标后，氧化锌:锆薄膜改善的n型性能在TCO应用方面很有前景。
