The Role of Air Annealing On the Structural and Electrical Properties of Zinc Oxide (Zno) Thin Film Deposited By Rf Sputtering Technique

Abstract

Transparent conducting Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films with an average thickness of 130.5 nm were deposited on glass substrate at room temperature by RF sputtering technique. Three of the samples were then annealed in open air at 1500C, 3000C and 4500C respectively. The fourth sample is reserved as the as-deposited or reference sample. The structural and electrical properties of the films were studied using X-ray diffraction and four-point probe technique. The XRD analysis of the annealed samples shows that they are poly crystalline with prepared orientation of [002], [102] and [103] planes. The spectra of the as-deposited sample appeared with a peak at [002] plane with low intensity. The as-deposited sample was found to have a resistivity of 11Ω.cm while that of the annealed samples lies between 1.2 Ω.cm to 5.6 Ω.cm. Other parameters calculated include the sheet resistance, Zn-O bond length, the figure of merit, strain and the stress.