Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF2-O011
ELECTRICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF
OPTIMIZED RADIO-FREQUENCY SPUTTERED ALUMINUM DOPED
ZINC OXIDE THIN FILMS FOR SOLAR CELL APPLICATIONS
Onyekachi Nwakanma 1 , Jorge Narro Rios 1 , Velumani Subramaniam 1
1 Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN - CINVESTAV, Departamento de
Ingeniería Eléctrica, Mexico.
Radio-frequency (rf) sputtering was used to deposit Aluminum Doped Zinc
Oxide (AZO) thin films, which offers a suitable choice as a transparent conductor
oxide (TCO) owing to its excellent conductivity and transparency, especially in
the visible-near infrared (vis-NIR) spectral range. The aim of this research is to
obtain AZO thin films with conduction properties close to metals and
transparent in the visible range, with a thickness between 200 nm to 350 nm.
The sputtering deposition conditions were varied, in the case of the power, 60
W to 200 W, Argon (Ar) pressure varied 2 mTorr to 10 mTorr and the effect of
the percentage reflected sputtering power were taken in to account to optimize
the deposition conditions. The transmittance and reflectance characterizations
(in the range 300 nm-2500 nm) were carried out using UV-VIS NIR
Spectrophotometer for all the thin films samples that were prepared.
Transmittance values of above 70% were observed. These results show values
of band gap ranging between 3.2 eV and 3.5 eV. Structural and morphological
characterizations of the films were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD),
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy.
Acknowledgment:
We wish to acknowledge the financial support the El Centro Mexicano de
Innovación en Energía Solar (CeMIE-Sol) project CeMIESol P-55
Keywords: AZO, rf-sputtering, optimization
Presenting authors email: kachinwakanma@yahoo.com