e investigated the effects of post-annealing in vacuum, nitrogen, and hydrogen atmospheres on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of 600 nm thick Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Post-annealing in hydrogen atmosphere at 400℃ for 1 hour showed the most significant improvement in electrical properties. Resistivity decreased from 9.11×10⁻³ to 1.4×10⁻³ Ω·cm, electron mobility increased from 4.11 to 18.23 cm²/V·s, and electron carrier concentration increased from 1.63×10²⁰ to 4.85×10²⁰ cm⁻³. In contrast, post-annealing in vacuum and nitrogen atmospheres resulted in degraded electrical properties due to oxygen and nitrogen chemisorption at grain boundaries. The enhancement in hydrogen-annealed films was attributed to the formation of additional oxygen vacancies and desorption of adsorbed oxygen species from grain boundaries. All films maintained excellent optical transparency of 80-90% in the visible range. The optical bandgap exhibited a blue-shift from 3.365 eV to 3.624 eV due to the Burstein-Moss effect induced by the increased electron carrier concentration. These results confirmed that hydrogen atmosphere post-annealing is the most effective method for enhancing the electrical conductivity of ZnO:Al thin films while maintaining high optical transparency.

Nickel oxide is a nonstoichiometric transparent conductive oxide with p-type conductivity, a wide-band energy gap of 3.4~4.0 eV, and excellent chemical stability, making it a very important candidate as a material for bipolar devices.P-type conductivity in Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCO) is controlled by the oxygen vacancy concentration. During the TCO film deposition process, additional oxygen diffusing into the NiO structure causes the formation of Ni 3p ions and Ni vacancies. This eventually affects the hole concentration of the p-type oxide thin film. In this work, the surface morphology and the electrical characteristics were confirmed in accordance with the annealing atmosphere of the nickel oxide thin film.

We investigated the properties of vanadium oxide (VOx) buffer layers deposited by a dual RF magnetron sputtering method under various target powers for inverted organic solar cells (IOSCs). Sputter fabricatged VOx thin films exhibited higher crystallinity with the increase of target power, resulting in a uniform and large grain size. The electrical properties of VOx films are improved with the increase of target power because of the increase of V content. In the results, the performance of IOSCs critically depended on the target power during the film growth because the crystalllinity of the VOx film affects the carrier mobility of the VOx film.

The quench voltage of the second-generation superconducting wire is affected by the resistivity characteristics of the stabilization layer. The specific resistance of the stabilization layer can be changed by the deposition process using RF magnetron sputtering. In this paper, a thin film made of a homogeneous material (Ag) and a dissimilar material (Cu) was deposited on the stabilization layer of the second-generation superconducting wire through RF magnetron sputtering. We found that the specific resistance was reduced by increasing the thickness of the stabilization layer. The reduction in the resistivity of the stabilization layer led to a decrease in the quench voltage of the second-generation superconducting wire. We suggest that various characteristic changes of the second-generation superconducting wire can be expected through the successful change in the resistivity of the stabilization layer of the proposed deposition process.

AGZO thin films were deposited on glass substrates using RF magnetron sputtering system under Ar flow rates, and their structural, electrical, and optical properties were analyzed systematically. As a result of the XRD pattern, the peak of the (002) (2θ≈33.7˚) orientation was observed, and it was found to have a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The sheet resistance of Ar 5 sccm was 3.073×10² Ω/sq and showed the best electrical properties because of the improvement of mobility due to the increase of the grain size and the variation of RMS roughness. In addition, the average transmittance was more than 90% for all samples, which demonstrated good optical properties. It is expected that the TCO characteristics can be improved by controlling Ar flow rates, and this will increase the efficiency of photoelectronic devices such as OLED and solar cells.

In this study, ZnO:Ga thin films were fabricated on a glass substrate using various Ar flows by an RF magnetron sputter system at room temperature. The dependencies of Ar flow on different properties were investigated. An appropriate control over the Ar flow led to the formation of a high-quality thin film. The ZnO:Ga films were formed as a hexagonal wurtzite structure with high (002) preferential orientation. The films exhibited a typical columnar microstructure and a smooth top face. The average transmittance was 85~89% within the visible area. By decreasing the Ar flow, the sheet resistance was decreased due to an increase in the grain size and a decrease in the root mean square roughness. The lowest sheet resistance of 86 Ω/□ was obtained at room temperature for the 40 sccm Ar flow.

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films were deposited by an RF magnetron sputtering method on glass substrates using ZnO as a target containing 5 wt% Ga₂O₃ powder (for Ga doping). The structural, electrical, and optical properties of the GZO thin films were investigated as a function of the substrate temperatures. The deposition rate decreased with increasing substrate temperatures from room temperature to 350℃. The films showed typical orientation with the c-axis vertical to the glass substrates and the grain size increased up to a substrate temperature of 300℃ but decreased beyond 350℃. The resistivity of GZO thin films deposited at the substrate temperature of 300℃ was 7×10^-4 Ωcm, and it showed a dependence on the carrier concentration and mobility. The optical transmittances of the films with thickness of 3,000 Å were above 80% in the visible region, regardless of the substrate temperatures.

ZnO thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering and then diffused by using an As source in the ampouletube. Also, the ZnO p-n homojunction was made by using As-doped ZnO thin films, and its properties were analyzed. After the As doping, the surface roughness increased, the crystal quality deteriorated, and the full width at half maximum was increased. The As-doped ZnO thin films showed typical p-type properties, and their resistivity was as low as 2.19×10^-3 Ωcm, probably because of the in-diffusion from an external As source and out-diffusion from the GaAs substrate. Also, the ZnO p-n junction displayed the typical rectification properties of a p-n junction. Therefore, the As diffusion method is effective for obtaining ZnO films with p-type properties.

ZnO:Al thin films were deposited on glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering followed by in situ heat treatment in the same chamber. Effects of in situ heat treatment on properties of ZnO:Al thin films were investigated in this study. As heat treatment temperature was increased, crystal quality was improved first and then it was deteriorated, surface roughness was decreased, and sheet resistance was also decreased. The decrease in sheet resistance was caused by increasing carrier concentration due to decreased surface roughness. The decrease in surface roughness resulted in increase of transmittance. Therefore, in situ heat treatment is an effective method for obtaining films with better electrical characteristics.

We have studied structural, optical and electrical properties of In-Ga-doped ZnO (IGZO) thin films. The IGZO thin films were deposited on the corning 1737 glass by RF magnetron sputtering method. The RF power in sputtering process was varied as 30, 50, 70, and 90 W respectively. All of the IGZO thin films transmittance in the visible range (400 nm ~ 800 nm) was above 83%. XRD analysis showed the IGZO thin films amorphous structure of the thin films without any peak. And also IGZO thin film have low resistivity (1.99×10-3 Ωcm), high carrier concentration (6.4×1020 cm-3), and mobility (10.3 cm2V-1s-1). By the studies we found that IGZO transparent thin film can be used as optoelectronic material and introduced application possibility for future electronic devices.

In this study, we fabricated the indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), zinc oxide (ZnO), aluminum zincoxide (AZO). oxide and silver are deposited by magnetron sputtering and thermal evaporator, respectively transparency and energy band gap were changed by the thickness of silver layer. To fabricate metal oxide metal(OMO) structure, IGZO sputtered on a corning 1,737 glass substrate was used as bottom oxide material and then silver was evaporated on the IGZO layer, finally IGZO was sputtered on the silver layer we get the final OMO structure. The radio-frequency power of the target was fixed at 30 W. The chamber pressure was set to 6.0×10-3Torr, and the gas ratio of Ar was fixed at 25 sccm. The silver thickness are varied from 3 to 15 nm. The OMO thin films was analyzed using XRD. XRD shows broad peak which clearly indicates amorphous phase. ZnO, AZO,OMO show the peak [002] direction at 34°. This indicate that ZnO, AZO OMO structure show the crystalline peak. Average transmittance of visible region was over 75%, while that of infrared region was under 20%. Energy band gap of OMO layer was increased with increasing thickness of Ag layer. As a result total transmittance was decreased.

We have investigated the structural and electrical properties of Si-Zn-Sn-O (SZTO) thin filmsdeposited by RF magnetron sputtering at various deposition temperatures from RT to 350℃. All theSZTO thin fims are amorphous structure. The mobility of SZTO thin film has been changed dependingon the deposition temperature. SZTO thin film transistor shows mobility of 8.715 ㎠/Vs at roomtemperature. We performed the electrical stress test by applying gate and drain voltage. SZTO thin filmtransistor shows good stability deposited at room temperature while showing poor stability deposited at350℃. As a result, the electrical performance and stability have been changed depending on depositiontemperature mainly because high deposition temperature loosened the amorphous structure generatingmore oxygen vacancies.

Indium Zinc Tin Oxide (IZTO) thin films were developed as an alternative to Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) thin films. ITO material which has been acknowledged with its low resistivity and optical transparency of 85-90% has been used as major transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials. However, due to the limited source, high price, and instability problems at high temperature of indium, many researches has been focused on indium-saving TCO materials. Mason Group of Northwestern University was reported to expand the solubility limit up to 40% by co-doping with 1:1 ratio of Zn+2 and Sn+4 ions. In this study, the properties of IZTO thin films corresponding to Zn/Sn different ratio were investigated. In addition, the effect of substrate temperature variable to the structural, optical and electrical properties of IZTO thin films was investigated.

We have studied structural, optical, and electrical properties of the Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films being usable in transparent conducting oxides. The GZO thin films were deposited on the corning 1737 glass plate by the RF magnetron sputtering system. To find optimal properties of GZO for transparent conducting oxides, the Ar gas in sputtering process was varied as 40, 60, 80 and 100 sccm, respectively. As reaction gas decreased, the crystallinity of GZO thin film was increased, the optical bandgap of GZO thin film increased. The transmittance of the film was over 80% in the visible light range regardless of the changes in reaction gas. The measurement of Hall effect characterizes the whole thin film as n-type, and the electrical property was improved with decreasing reaction gas. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of the GZO thin films were affected by Ga dopant content in GZO thin film.

IGZO thin films have been prepared by RF magnetron sputtering. The structural, electrical and optical properties of the IGZO thin films have been investigated as a function of deposition condition. XRD analysis of IGZO thin films showed a typical crystallographic orientation with c-axis perpendicular regardless of deposition conditions. The carrier mobility, carrier concentration and resistivity of the IGZO films sputtered at 200 W, 1mTorr and 300℃ were 28.5 cm2/V·sec, 2.6×1020 cm3, 8.8×10-4 Ω·cm respectively. The optical transmittance were higher than 80% at visible region regardless of the deposition conditions under the experiments above, and specifically higher than 90% at wave length over 500 nm. The absorption edge was shifted to shorter wavelength with increase of carrier concentration.

AlN thin films were deposited on p-type Si(100) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering method. This study showed the change of the preferential orientation of AlN thin films deposition with the change of the deposition conditions such as sputtering pressure and Ar/N2 gas ratio in chamber. It was identified by X-ray diffraction patterns that AlN thin film deposited at low sputtering pressure has a (002) orientation, however its preferred orientation was changed from the (002) to the (100) orientation with increasing sputtering pressure. Also, it was observed that the properties of AlN thin films such as thickness, grain size and surface roughness were largely dependent on Ar/N2 gas ratio and a high quality thin film could be prepared at lower nitrogen concentration. AlN thin films were investigated relationship between preferential orientation and deposition condition by using XRD, FE-SEM and PFM.

In this study, transparent conducting Al-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) films with a thickness of 150 nm were prepared on corning glass substrate by the RF magnetron sputtering with using a Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO), (Al2o3: 2 wt%) target at room temperature. This study investigated the effect of rapid thermal annealing temperature and oxygen ambient on structural, electrical and optical properties of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films. The films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 400 to 700℃ by using Rapid thermal equipment in oxygen ambient. The effect of RTA treatment on the structural properties were studied by x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. It is observed that the Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin film annealed at 500℃ at 5 minute oxygen ambient gas reveals the strongest XRD emission intensity and narrowest full width at half maximum among the temperature studied. The enhanced UV emission from the film annealed at 500℃ at 5 minute oxygen ambient gas is attributed to the improved crystalline quality of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin film due to the effective relaxation of residual compressive stress and achieving maximum grain size.

Transparent thin film transistors (TTFT) were fabricated using the rf magnetron sputtered ZnO-SnO2 films as active layers. A ceramic target whose Zn atomic ratio to Sn is 2:1 was employed for the deposition of ZnO-SnO2 films. To study the post-annealing effects on the properties of TTFT, ZnO-SnO2 films were annealed at 200℃ or 400℃ for 5 min before In deposition for source and drain electrodes. Oxygen was added into chamber during sputtering to raise the resistivity of ZnO-SnO2 films. The effects of oxygen addition on the properties of TTFT were also investigated. 100 nm Si3N4 film grown on 100 nm SiO2 film was used as gate dielectrics. The mobility, Ion/Ioff, interface state density etc. were obtained from the transfer characteristics of ZnO-SnO2 TTFTs.

TiO2 (Ti(1-x)Nb(x)O2, x= 0.04~0.06) transparent conducting oxide film was fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering process and their electrical, optical, stability properties were studied. When the Nb 4 at% sputtering target was used with RF power 120 W, pressure 8 mTorr, post-annealing temperature 60 0℃, the resistivity of TNO film was 4×10(-4) Ω-cm. The optical transmittance in the visible wavelength was ca. 86%. TNO films require heat treatment during or after the deposition process. When the film was deposited at room temperature and post-annealed at 600℃, the lowest resistivity was obtained. When the TNO film was exposed to high temperature and humidity, the resistivity of the film was rather decreased. The stability to temperature and humidity implies that the TNO film could be a appropriate candidate for In-free, ZnO-free transparent conducting oxide materials.

We were studied that AZO conductive thin film can substitute for FTO electrode in dye sensitized solar cell. Three types of AZO films were deposited on soda-lime glass(AZO/glass, AZO/AZO/glass, textured AZO/AZO/glass) using RF magnetron sputtering process and investigated their properties of electrical, optical, and photoelectric conversion rate. The textured AZO/AZO/glass has the lowest resistivity of 3.079×10-4 Ω㎝ among other films. And the optical transmittance rate was better than both non textured AZO/AZO/glass and FTO/glass in the visible region. After manufacturing dye solar cells using the three types of AZO films, the textured AZO/AZO/glass showed the highest photoelectric conversion rate of 3.68% among AZO samples. But the transformation rate was slightly lower than FTO cells (4.52%). However, the conductive film of textured AZO/AZO/glass can be applicable to use an electrode in solar cells as cost-effective products.

Znic sulfide (ZnS) thin films were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The substrate temperature varied from room temperature (RT) to 500℃. The structural and optical properties of ZnS films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive analysis of X-ray (EDAX) and UV-visible transmission spectra. The XRD analyses reveal that ZnS films have cubic structures with (111) preferential orientation, whereas the diffraction patterns sharpen with the increase in substrate temperatures. The FESEM images indicate that ZnS films deposited at 400℃ have nano-sized grains with a grain size of∼ 67 nm. The films exhibit relatively high transmittance of 80% in the visible region, with an energy band gap of 3.71 eV. One obvious result is that the energy band gap of the film increases with increasing the substrate temperatures.

Ga-doped ZnO-SnO2 (ZSGO) films were deposited by rf magnetron sputtering and their structural and electrical properties were investigated. In order to fabricate the target for sputtering, the mixture of ZnO, SnO2 (1:1 weight ratio) and Ga2O3 (3.0 wt%) powder was calcined at 800℃ for 1 h. The substrate temperature was varied from room temperature to 300℃. The crystallographic properties and the surface morphologies of the films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The optical transmittances of the films were measured and the optical energy band gaps were obtained from the absorption coefficients. The resistivity variation with substrate temperature was measured. Auger electron spectroscopy was employed to find the atomic ratio of Zn, Sn, Ga and O in the film deposited at room temperature. ZSGO films exhibited the optical transmittance in the visible region of more than 80% and resistivity higher than 10 Ωcm.

Recently, low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology is widely used in sensors, actuators and microsystems fields because of its very good electrical and mechanical properties, high reliability and stability as well as possibility of making 3D micro structures. In this study, we investigated the effects of sputtering gas ratio and annealing temperature on the crystal structure of Pb(ZrTi)O3 (PZT) thin films deposited on LTCC substrate. The LTCC substrate with thickness of 400 ㎛ were fabricated by laminating 4 green tapes which consist of alumina and glass particle in an organic binder. The PZT thin films were deposited on Pt / Ti / LTCC substrates by RF magnetron sputtering method. The results showed that the crystallization of the films were enhanced as increasing O2 mixing ratio. At about 25% O2 mixing ratio, was well crystallized in the perovskite structure. PZT thin films was annealed at various temperatures. When the annealing temperature is lower, the PZT thin films become a phyrochlore phase. However, when the annealing temperature is higher than 600℃, the PZT thin films become a perovskite phase. At the annealing temperature of 700℃, perovskite PZT thin films with good quality structure was obtained.

We have studied structural, optical, and electrical properties of the Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films being usable in transparent conducting oxides. The AZO thin films were deposited on the corning 1737 glass plate by the RF magnetron sputtering system. To find optimal properties of AZO for transparent conducting oxides, the RF power in sputtering process was varied as 40 W, 60 W, and 80 W, respectively. As RF power increased, the crystallinity of AZO thin film was decreased, the optical bandgap of AZO thin film increased. The transmittance of the film was over 80% in the visible light range regardless of the changes in RF power. The measurement of Hall effect characterizes the whole thin film as n-type, and the electrical property was improved with increasing RF power. The structural, optical, and electrical properties of the AZO thin films were affected by Al dopant content in AZO thin film.