In situ measurement of the internal stress evolution during sputter deposition of ZnO:Al

► Laser-based in-situ internal stress monitoring is efficient even on transparent coating and/or substrate. ► Spots position relates the stress while spots intensity relates the transparent layer thickness. ► ZnO:Al with either tensile or compressive stress can be grown. ► Internal stress evolution allows inferring the optimum deposition parameters in term of the resulting electro-optical properties of ZnO:Al.