Microstructure evolution of Al-doped zinc oxide and Sn-doped indium oxide deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering: A comparison

Journal Article · Tue Apr 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916725· OSTI ID:22402888

Nie, Man; Bikowski, Andre; Ellmer, Klaus ^[1]

---

1. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Institute for Solar Fuels, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, D-14109 Berlin (Germany)

The microstructure and morphology evolution of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films on borosilicate glass substrates deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature (RT) and 300 °C were investigated by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM). One-dimensional power spectral density (1DPSD) functions derived from the AFM profiles, which can be used to distinguish different growth mechanisms, were used to compare the microstructure scaling behavior of the thin films. The rms roughness R{sub q} evolves with film thickness as a power law, R{sub q} ∼ d{sub f}{sup β}, and different growth exponents β were found for AZO and ITO films. For AZO films, β of 1.47 and 0.56 are obtained for RT and 300 °C depositions, respectively, which are caused by the high compressive stress in the film at RT and relaxation of the stress at 300 °C. While for ITO films, β{sub 1} = 0.14 and β{sub 2} = 0.64 for RT, and β{sub 1} = 0.89 and β{sub 2} = 0.3 for 300 °C deposition are obtained, respectively, which is related to the strong competition between the surface diffusion and shadowing effect and/or grain growth. Electrical properties of both materials as a function of film thickness were also compared. By the modified Fuchs-Sondheimer model fitting of the electrical transport in both materials, different nucleation states are pointed out for both types of films.

• OSTI ID: 22402888
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 15; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
BOROSILICATE GLASS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DIFFUSION
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
GRAIN GROWTH
INDIUM OXIDES
MICROSTRUCTURE
MORPHOLOGY
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
ROUGHNESS
SHADOW EFFECT
SPECTRAL DENSITY
SPUTTERING
STRESSES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
ZINC OXIDES