Properties of doped ZnO transparent conductive thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering using a series of high quality ceramic targets

To obtain high transmittance and low resistivity ZnO transparent conductive thin films, a series of ZnO ceramic targets (ZnO:Al, ZnO:(Al, Dy), ZnO:(Al, Gd), ZnO:(Al, Zr), ZnO:(Al, Nb), and ZnO:(Al, W)) were fabricated and used to deposit thin films onto glass substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows that the films are polycrystalline fitting well with hexagonal wurtzite structure and have a preferred orientation of the (002) plane. The transmittance of above 86% as well as the lowest resistivity of 8.43 x 10(-3) Omega.cm was obtained.