Influence of the post-treatment on the properties of ZnO thin films

In this work a study of the influence of the annealing treatment (atmosphere and temperature) on the properties of zinc oxide thin films (intrinsic and doped with indium and aluminum) prepared by spray pyrolysis is presented. The result shows that the type of atmosphere (reduction or oxidant) has an important role in the changes observed in the structural, electrical and optical properties of the ZnO thin films. The ZnO thin film doped with indium, presents the lowest resistivity (rho = 5.8 x 10(-3) Omega cm) associated to a high transmittance (T = 86%), characteristics required for application on optoelectronic devices. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.