Influence of N2 introduction on structural and optical properties of V-doped ZnO thin films grown by low-temperature reactive RF magnetron sputtering. (1st November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Suzuki, Tomoya; Chiba, Hiroshi; Watanabe, Akihiro; Kawashima, Tomoyuki; Washio, Katsuyoshi
• Is Part Of: Materials science in semiconductor processing. Volume 70(2017)
• Page Start: 223
• Page End: 228
• Publication Date: 2017-11-01
• Subjects: ZnO -- Vanadium -- Nitrogen -- Low-temperature growth -- RF magnetron sputtering; Semiconductors -- Periodicals; Integrated circuits -- Materials -- Periodicals; Semiconducteurs -- Périodiques; Circuits intégrés -- Matériaux -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 621.38152
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2016.12.013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-8001

Abstract

Abstract: The influences of N2 introduction to a sputtering gas on structural and optical properties of vanadium-doped ZnO (VZO) films, grown by using reactive RF magnetron sputtering on a quartz substrate at room temperature, were investigated. In the VZO films, V doping caused to form a large number of O vacancies ( V O ) and degraded both the c-axis orientation and optical transmittance. While, on the contrary, the ZnO(002) diffraction intensity of 3.5-at.% VZO films increased adding N2 with a partial pressure ratio ( α N2 ) >2% reaching a maximum at α N2 =5%. The average optical transmittance (wavelengths: 450−800 nm) of the 3.5-at.% VZO films was also improved by the N2 introduction and reached 74% at α N2 =5%. As a result of the analyses of the chemical binding states of the incorporated N atoms via the Raman spectroscopy and XPS, it was confirmed that the O sites were substituted by the N atoms and the amount of incorporated N increased by the high V doping. From the above, the N2 introduction was effective to suppress the V O formation even in room-temperature-grown VZO films, so it enables to improve both the c-axis orientation and optical transmittance.