Effect of substrate temperature on the structure, electrical and optical properties of Mo doped ZnO films

•MZO thin films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering from ZnO target and DC magnetron sputtering from Mo target.•All films are polycrystalline with preferential c-axis growth.•The various properties of films fabricated at varied substrate temperature have been studied.•The valence of the Mo ions in the ZnO matrix is mixture of +5 and +6.

Mo-doped ZnO (MZO) transparent conductive thin films were prepared on glass substrate under various substrate temperature from 50 °C to 200 °C. The microstructural, electrical and optical properties of the MZO films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Hall effect and UV–vis spectrophotometer. Based on XRD measurements, all films are polycrystalline with preferential c-axis growth. The lowest resistivity was obtained to be 2.8 × 10−3 Ω·cm. According to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement, the valence of the Mo ions in the ZnO matrix is a mixture of +5 and +6. In addition, the transmittance of the film is ∼80% throughout the visible light region. Our results indicate that the MZO films are suitable for potential transparent optoelectronic applications.