Effect of Silver Dopants on the ZnO Thin Films Prepared by a Radio Frequency Magnetron Co-Sputtering System

Fang-Cheng Liu; Jyun-Yong Li; Tai-Hong Chen; Chun-How Chang; Ching-Ting Lee; Wei-Hua Hsiao; Day-Shan Liu

doi:10.3390/ma10070797

Effect of Silver Dopants on the ZnO Thin Films Prepared by a Radio Frequency Magnetron Co-Sputtering System

Materials (Basel). 2017 Jul 14;10(7):797. doi: 10.3390/ma10070797.

Authors

Fang-Cheng Liu¹, Jyun-Yong Li², Tai-Hong Chen³, Chun-How Chang⁴, Ching-Ting Lee⁵, Wei-Hua Hsiao⁶, Day-Shan Liu⁷

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Electro-Optical and Materials Science, National Formosa University, Yunlin 63201, Taiwan. chengliuxd@gmail.com.
² Institute of Electro-Optical and Materials Science, National Formosa University, Yunlin 63201, Taiwan. 10476110@gm.nfu.edu.tw.
³ Additive Manufacturing and Laser Application, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Tainan 73445, Taiwan. tsaicc1221@gmail.com.
⁴ Additive Manufacturing and Laser Application, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Tainan 73445, Taiwan. a0922639175@gmail.com.
⁵ Institute of Microelectronics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan. tsaicc@ee.ncku.edu.tw.
⁶ Institute of Electro-Optical and Materials Science, National Formosa University, Yunlin 63201, Taiwan. s706802000213@gmail.com.
⁷ Institute of Electro-Optical and Materials Science, National Formosa University, Yunlin 63201, Taiwan. dsliu@sunws.nfu.edu.tw.

Abstract

Ag-ZnO co-sputtered films at various atomic ratios of Ag (Ag/(Ag + Zn) at.%) were prepared by a radio frequency magnetron cosputtering system, using the co-sputtered targets of Ag and ZnO. The activation of the Ag acceptors (Ag_Zn) and the formation of the Ag aggregations (Ag⁰) in the ZnO matrix were investigated from XRD, Raman scattering, and XPS measurements. The Ag-ZnO co-sputtered film behaving like a p-type conduction was achievable after annealing at 350 °C under air ambient for 1 h.

Keywords: Ag acceptors; Ag aggregations; Ag-ZnO co-sputtered film; p-type conduction; radio frequency magnetron co-sputtered system.