Transparent conducting zinc oxide thin film prepared by electron beam evaporation technique with argon plasma assistance

Zinc oxide thin film has been deposited on glass substrate by electron beam evaporation with argon plasma assistance. Undoped polycrystalline ZnO pellets (purity = 99%) were used as source material. The film was characterized by atomic force microscopy, UV/VIS/NIR spectroscopy, electrical resistivity and Hall effect measurements and X-ray diffraction. The thicknesses were measured using a Dektak profilometer and the electrical resistivity was measured by the four-probe technique. As deposited film shown good adherence. X-ray diffraction measurements have shown that ZnO film is highly c-axis-oriented. The AFM image has shown that the surface of the electron beam evaporated ZnO is formed by nano grains. The values of thickness and resistivity for ZnO film were respectively 302 nm and 9.16x10⁻² Ω.cm and the maximum optical transmittance of ZnO thin film was up to 85%. ZnO film fabricated by electron beam evaporation with plasma assistance is a good material for electronic and solar cells applications.