Relationship between crystal structure and electrical properties of nonuniform Al-doped ZnO thin films prepared by RF magnetron sputtering

The crystal structure and the electrical properties for Al-doped ZnO films have been investigated with a parameter of a substrate's arrangement in the RF magnetron sputtering system. The samples faced to inside of the target area (0-40 mm) shows lower conductivity in comparison with samples arranged at outside of the target area (50-70 mm). The electrical properties of the ZnO films are strongly affected by the damage due to collision of sputtered particles and recoiled Ar ions. The experimental mobility of the samples arranged at outside the target area (50-70 mm) shows good agreement with the value calculated by the Brooks and Dingle theory assuming that the carrier scattering is mainly originated from the ionized impurities scattering.