Thermally Diffused Al:ZnO Thin Films for Broadband Transparent Conductor

Chong Tong, Juhyung Yun, Yen Jen Chen, Dengxin Ji, Qiaoqiang Gan, Wayne A. Anderson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here, we report an approach to realize highly transparent low resistance Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films for broadband transparent conductors. Thin Al films are deposited on ZnO surfaces, followed by thermal diffusion processes, introducing the Al doping into ZnO thin films. By utilizing the interdiffusion of Al, Zn, and O, the chemical state of Al on the surfaces can be converted to a fully oxidized state, resulting in a low sheet resistance of 6.2 Ω/sq and an excellent transparency (i.e., 96.5% at 550 nm and higher than 85% up to 2500 nm), which is superior compared with some previously reported values for indium tin oxide, solution processed AZO, and many transparent conducting materials using novel nanostructures. Such AZO films are also applied as transparent conducting layers for AZO/Si heterojunction solar cells, demonstrating their applications in optoelectronic devices.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3985-3991
Number of pages7
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume8
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 24 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Generated from Scopus record by KAUST IRTS on 2022-09-13

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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