Influence of process parameters on band gap of Al-doped ZnO film

This paper presents the influence of process parameters, such as argon (Ar) flow rate, sputtering power and substrate temperature on the band gap of Al-doped ZnO film, Al-doped ZnO thin films were fabricated by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technology and deposited on polyimide and glass substrates. Under different Ar flow rates varied from 30 to 70 sccm, the band gap of thin films were changed from 3.56 to 3.67 eV. As sputtering power ranged from 125 to 200W, the band gap was varied from 3.28 to 3.82 eV; the band gap was between 3.41 and 3.88 eV as substrate temperature increases from 150°C to 300°C. Furthermore, the correlation between carrier concentration and band gap was investigated by HALL. These results demonstrate that the band gap of the Al-doped ZnO thin film can be adjusted by changing the Ar flow rate, sputtering power and substrate temperature, which can improve the performance of semiconductor devices related to Al-doped ZnO thin film. © 2013 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.