Properties of Eu-doped zinc oxide thin films grown on glass substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

Eu-doped ZnO (EZO) thin films were prepared on glass substrates at various growth temperatures by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The properties of deposited thin films showed a significant dependence on the growth temperature. The preferential growth orientation of all the thin films was occurred along the ZnO (002) plane. The maximum crystallite size and the minimum average transmittance in the wavelength range of 450-1100 nm were observed for the EZO thin film deposited at 25 degrees C. A red shift of the optical band gap was observed in the growth temperature range of 25-300 degrees C. The highest figure of merit, an index for evaluating the performance of transparent conducting thin films, was obtained at 200 degrees C of growth temperature. These results indicated that the high-quality EZO film was obtained at a growth temperature of 200 degrees C. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.