Structural, electrical and optical properties of sol–gel AZO thin films

Abstract Transparent conductive Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were prepared by a sol–gel method and their structural, electrical and optical properties were systematically investigated. A minimum resistivity of 4.2 × 10 −3  Ω cm was obtained for the 650 °C-annealed films doped with 1.0 at.% Al. All films had the preferential c -axis oriented texture according to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) results. Optical transmittance spectra of the films showed a high transmittance of over 85% in the visible region and the optical band gap of the AZO films broadened with increasing doping concentration.

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