Influence of sputtering power on structural, electrical and optical properties of reactive magnetron sputtered Cr doped CdO thin films

Cr doped CdO thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by reactive DC magnetron sputtering method by varying sputtering powers from 70 to 100 W. X-ray diffraction peaks indicates that the films have preferred orientation along (2 0 0) plane with cubic structure. The intensity of (2 0 0) peak increased with the increase of sputtering power. The surface morphology and elemental analysis of the films was studied using field emission scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive analysis by X-rays. A high optical transmittance of 91%, a low electrical resistivity of 2.30 × 10−4 Ω.cm and a minimum sheet resistance of 6.57 Ω/sq is obtained for the thin film deposited at sputtering power of 90 W. The optical band gap of the films is found to be decreased from 2.86 to 2.72 eV with the increase of sputtering power.