Characterization of molybdenum doped indium oxide/aluminum doped zinc oxide thin film stacks for optoelectronic applications

Abstract

Multilayer (ML) thin films, based on indium molybdenum oxide (IMO) and aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), having different stacking were deposited using RF sputtering at room temperature (RT). The total-layer thickness of the MLs ranges between 93 nm and 98 nm. The deposited films were characterized by their structural, electrical, microstructural, and optical properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks obtained at 2θ of around 30.6° and 34.27° are matched with cubic-In₂O₃ (222) and hexagonal-ZnO (002), respectively. The MLs have both nano-crystalline and polycrystalline structures depending on the layer properties. A conspicuous feature of XRD analysis is the absence of diffraction peak from 50 nm thick IMO layer when it is stacked below 50 nm thick AZO, whereas it appears significantly when the stacking is reversed to place IMO above AZO layer. Hall measurements confirmed that the deposited MLs are n- type conducting and the electrical properties are varied as a function of layer properties. The deposited MLs show high shortwavelength infrared transmittance (SWIRT) even at 3300 nm, which is ranging as high as 75 % - 90 %. Overall, the MLs show high transmittance in the entire Vis-SWIR region. The optical band gap (E_g) calculated using the absorption coefficient (α) and photon energy (hν) of the deposited MLs is ranging between 3.19 eV and 3.56 eV, depending on the layer properties. Selected as- deposited films were annealed in open air at 400 °C for 1 h; the transmittance of annealed films was improved but their electrical properties deteriorated. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis shows that the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness of the MLs ranges between 0.8 nm and 1.5 nm.