Microstructure evolution of Al-doped zinc oxide and Sn-doped indium oxide deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering: A comparison

作者：Nie Man; Bikowski Andre; Ellmer Klaus^*

来源：Journal of Applied Physics, 2015, 117(15): 155301.

DOI：10.1063/1.4916725

The microstructure and morphology evolution of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films on borosilicate glass substrates deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature (RT) and 300 degrees C were investigated by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM). One-dimensional power spectral density (1DPSD) functions derived from the AFM profiles, which can be used to distinguish different growth mechanisms, were used to compare the microstructure scaling behavior of the thin films. The rms roughness R-q evolves with film thickness as a power law, R-q similar to d(f)(beta), and different growth exponents beta were found for AZO and ITO films. For AZO films, beta of 1.47 and 0.56 are obtained for RT and 300 degrees C depositions, respectively, which are caused by the high compressive stress in the film at RT and relaxation of the stress at 300 degrees C. While for ITO films, beta(1) = 0.14 and beta(2) = 0.64 for RT, and beta(1) = 0.89 and beta(2) = 0.3 for 300 degrees C deposition are obtained, respectively, which is related to the strong competition between the surface diffusion and shadowing effect and/or grain growth. Electrical properties of both materials as a function of film thickness were also compared. By the modified FuchsSondheimer model fitting of the electrical transport in both materials, different nucleation states are pointed out for both types of films.

• 出版日期2015-4-21