A Study of Annealing Time Effects on the Properties of Al:ZnO

ZnO:Al films with Al/Zn atomic ratio of 1% were prepared on quartz glass by a sol-gel process. The films were annealed in argon at 500 oC. The annealing time varied between 1 h and 5 h. The effects of annealing time on the properties of ZnO:Al films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical transmittance and four-point probe method. The results showed that the films exhibited c-axis preferred orientation after annealing for 1 h. The transmittance in the visual region was ∼ 80%, and the conductivity was 4×10-2 Ω·cm. As the annealing time increased, the crystal preferred orientation was absent, and the conductivity increased.