Metal-doped ZnO thin films: Synthesis and characterizations

The metal doped ZnO (MZO, M = Al, Ag) films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering on glass substrates with extraordinary designed the MZO targets. For the doping sources contained in each MZO target, we used Al(OH)3, AgNO3 powders by mixing the powders into pure ZnO powder with various rate (0–10 wt.%), respectively. We investigated on the optical and electrical properties of the as-sputtered MZO films as dependences of the dopant contents in targets. All the MZO films had shown a preferred orientation in the [001] direction. As the quantity and variety of metal dopants were changed, the crystallinity and the transmittance as well as optical band gap were changed. The electrical resistivity was also changed with changing metal doping amounts and a kind of dopant. To investigate these phenomena in details, the O K-edge configurations of the MZO films were studied.