Realization of high transparent conductive vanadium-doped zinc oxide thin films onto flexible PEN substrates by RF-magnetron sputtering using nanopowders targets

• Published in: Ceramics international Vol. 47; no. 16; pp. 22881 - 22888
• Main Authors: Hamrit, Samir, Djessas, Kamal, Medjnoun, Kahina, Bouchama, Idris, Saeed, Mohammad Alam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15.08.2021
• Subjects: Nanopowders; Nanostructured thin films; PEN substrates; RF-Magnetron sputtering; TCO; V-doped ZnO; PEN substrates; TCO; Nanopowders; Nanostructured thin films; RF-Magnetron sputtering; V-doped ZnO
• ISSN: 0272-8842; 1873-3956
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2021.04.308

RF-magnetron sputtering has been carried out at room temperature to deposit vanadium-doped zinc oxide (VZO) nanostructured thin films onto flexible PEN substrates. The sputtering targets of compacted VZO nanopowder have been prepared using a rapid and inexpensive Sol-Gel synthesis followed by a supercritical drying process. Structural and morphological study of VZO particles in the targets has been carried out via X-ray diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The nanostructured thin films have been characterized to analyze the structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties as a function of vanadium content from 0 to 4 at.%. Structural characterization of VZO thin films revealed that the deposited thin films have been grown preferentially along (002) and exhibit the hexagonal wurtzite structure. The cross-sectional and microstructural analysis performed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirms the columnar growth of nanostructures. The deposited thin films exhibit transparent behavior with transmission >70% in the visible region. It has been observed that nanostructured thin films with vanadium content of 2% have demonstrated the lowest resistivity (6.71 × 10−4 Ω cm) with Hall mobility of 10.62 cm2 V−1 s−1. The deposited vanadium doped nanostructured thin films would have potential applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices.