Fabrication of aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) transparent conductive oxide by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis

In this work, we studied aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) and an annealing treatment on electrical and optical properties of films prepared by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. In comparison with conventional methods, ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method provides advantages such as low equipment cost, good thickness uniformity over a large area, low temperature and low vacuum requirement in processing. Aluminium doped ZnO films were deposited on glass substrates with different doping concentrations. Detailed structural, electrical and optical measurements were conducted to resolve the effects of aluminium doped ZnO films. The resistivity was similar to 10(-3) Omega cm, carrier concentration similar to 10(20) cm(-3) and mobility similar to 7 cm(2)/Vs. The optical transmittance of films was higher than 80% and optical band-gap energy increases from 3.25 eV to 3.54 eV. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.