Zn‐aided defect control for ultrathin GZO films with high carrier concentration aiming at alternative plasmonic metamaterials. Issue 8 (6th February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhu, Chaoting; Li, Jia; Yang, Ye; Huang, Jinhua; Lu, Yuehui; Tan, Ruiqin; Dai, Ning; Song, Weijie
• Is Part Of: Physica status solidi. Volume 212:Issue 8(2015:Aug.)
• Page Start: 1713
• Page End: 1718
• Publication Date: 2015-02-06
• Subjects: Solid state physics -- Periodicals; Solids -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; 530.41
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201431765
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1862-6300

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="pssa201431765-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>In this work, (0–10 nm) Zn/100 nm ZnO:Ga ultrathin films are deposited on glass substrate at room temperature by magnetron sputtering, with a post‐rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at 500 °C for 1 min, which causes a dramatic improvement in carrier concentration due to elimination of Zn‐vacancy defects. Depositing different Zn thickness, only 8 nm Zn/100 nm GZO thin film exhibits the highest carrier concentration of 1.02 × 10²¹ cm⁻³ and the lowest resistivity of 4<italic>.</italic>0 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm. Higher electronic concentration shifts the zero‐crossover of the real permittivity below 1.3 μm, which confirms the metal‐like optical properties in the near‐infrared (NIR) range. Optical losses in these annealed Zn/GZO films are four times smaller than conventional Ag films in the NIR. The average transmittances of all the annealed GZO thin films were above 84% in the visible range. The GZO ultrathin film deposited by this method is a promising low‐loss alternative material to conventional metals for plasmonic devices operating in the NIR.</p> </sec> </abstract>