Properties of ZnO:Al films deposited on polycarbonate substrate

Transparent conducting aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) films have been prepared on polycarbonate (PC) substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique at low substrate temperature (room-100 degrees C); Nd-YAG laser with wavelength of 1064 nm was used as laser source. The experiments were performed at various oxygen pressures (3 pa, 5 pa, and 7 Pa). In order to study the influence of the process parameters on the deposited (ZnO:Al) films, X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy were applied to characterize the structure and surface morphology of the deposited (ZnO:Al) films. Polycrystalline ZnO:AI films having a preferred orientation with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate were deposited with a strong single violet emission centering about 377-379 nm without any accompanying deep level emission. The average transmittances exceed 85% in the visible spectrum for 300 nm thick films deposited on polycarbonate. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.