Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Films as Transparent Conductive Electrodes

Sn doped ZnO thin films have been deposited on c-cut sapphire single crystal substrates at 200°C by pulsed electron beam deposition. The kinetic energies of the ions in the plasma plume determined from ion probe measurements, present a relatively broad distribution of the energies from a few eV to one hundred eV. Sn doped ZnO films have a graded composition, with a slightly in-depth variation of Sn. The transmittance of the films was about 87% in the visible wavelength range. The resistivity was 0.4 Ωcm at room temperature and showed a classical semiconductor behavior with the temperature.