Search

Simultaneously achieving higher carriers concentration and mobility is a technical challenge against up-scaling the transparent-conductive performances of transparent-conductive oxides. Utilizing one order higher dense (~1 × 1011 cm-3) plasmas (in comparison to the conventional direct current plasmas), highly c-axis oriented Al-doped ZnO films have been prepared with precise control over relative composition and chemical states of constituting elements. Tailoring of intrinsic (O vacancies) and extrinsic (ionic Al and zero-valent Al) dopants provide simultaneous enhancement in mobility and concentration of charge carriers. Room-temperature resistivity as low as 4.89 × 10-4 Ω cm along the carrier concentration 5.6 × 1020 cm-3 is obtained in 200 nm thick transparent films. Here, the control of atomic Al reduces the charge trapping at grain boundaries and subdues the effects of grain boundary scattering. A mechanism based on the correlation between electron-hole interaction and carrier mobility is proposed for degenerately doped wide band-gap semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-resolved probe measurements of the plasma parameters and the electron energy distribution function are carried out in a unipolar pulsed dc magnetron argon discharge. The cathode target is driven by the 20 kHz midfrequency unipolar dc pulses at three operating modes, such as constant voltage, constant power, and constant current with the duty cycles ranging from 10% to 90%. It is observed that as the duty cycle is reduced, the electron temperature averaged during the pulse-on period rapidly increases irrespective of the operating mode although the average electron density strongly depends on the operating mode. The comparison of the measured electron energy distribution functions shows that the electron heating during the pulse-on period becomes efficient in the pulse operation with short duty cycle, which is closely related to the deep penetration of the high-voltage sheath into the bulk during the pulse-on period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]