Sol-gel derived Al and Ga co-doped ZnO thin films: An optoelectronic study

Al and Ga co-doped ZnO (AGZO) thin films with different doping contents of 0.5-4 at.% were synthesized via sol-gel route using dip coating method and the results were compared to the single doped specimens Al:ZnO (AZO) and Ga:ZnO (GZO). All samples were highly transparent in visible region (T > 85%) with band gap values around 3.3 eV. Introduction of Al and Ga to the ZnO crystal structure decreased the crystallinity and reduced the particle size of the films. Electrical resistivity was investigated and engineered in this study as the main parameter. Single doped samples showed reduction of resistivity compared to the un-doped ZnO. In this regard, Ga was more efficient than Al in decreasing the electrical resistivity. Furthermore, samples with 1 at.% Al and 1 at.% Ga showed the minimum amount of electrical resistivity. Co-doping was performed with two different approaches including variable doping content (Al + Ga ≠ cte) and constant doping content (Al + Ga = 0.5, 1, and 2 at.%) for the sake of the comparison with single doped samples. Samples with Al = 1 at.% and Ga = 1 at.% showed the lowest electrical resistivity in AGZO samples of former approach. However, in latter approach the lowest resistivity was obtained in Al + Ga = 2 at.% sample. The results proved the capability of co-doped samples in optoelectronic industry regarding partially substitution of expensive Ga with Al and obtaining co-doped AGZO transparent conductive thin films with lower resistivity compared to conventional AZO thin films and also achieving commercial advantages compared to costly GZO thin films.