Atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of zinc oxide and aluminum zinc oxide

• A second generation precursor was utilized for atmospheric pressure film growth.
• Addition of water vapor to the carrier gas stream led to a marked reduction of ZnF2.
• Carbonaceous contamination from the precursor was minimal.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited via atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A second-generation precursor, bis(1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedionato)(N,N′-diethylethylenediamine) zinc, exhibited significant vapor pressure and good stability at one atmosphere where a vaporization temperature of 110 °C gave flux ~ 7 μmol/min. Auger electron spectroscopy confirmed that addition of H2O to the carrier gas stream mitigated F contamination giving nearly 1:1 metal:oxide stoichiometries for both ZnO and AZO with little precursor-derived C contamination. ZnO and AZO thin film resistivities ranged from 14 to 28 Ω·cm for the former and 1.1 to 2.7 Ω·cm for the latter.