Influence of thickness on the structural, optical and electrical properties of Ga-doped ZnO thin films deposited by sputtering magnetron

In the present work, we have deposited Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films by magnetron sputtering technique using nanocrystalline particles elaborated by sol-gel method as a target material. The effect of the thickness, on the physical properties of the GZO thin films was analyzed. The influence of the thickness, on structure, surface morphologies, chemical atomic composition, electrical and optical properties was investigated by XRD, SEM, TEM, AFM, Raman measurement, Hall measurement and UV Vis-NIR spectrophotometer, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results revealed the polycrystalline nature of the films with hexagonal wurtzite structure having preferential orientation a long [002] direction normal to the substrate. The lowest resistivity obtained from electrical studies was 10(-)4 ohm cm. The optical properties were studied using a UV-vis spectrophotometer and the average transmittance in the visible region (400-800 nm) was found to be 90%. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.