Effect of annealing temperature on properties of ZnO:Al thin films prepared by pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering

•Highly c-axis oriented AZO films were grown on glass using pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering with a speedflo controller.•The oxygen partial pressure was accurately controlled via a closed-loop speedflo controller with a λ-sensor.•The effect of annealing temperature on the optical, electrical, and structural properties was investigated.

Transparent conductive aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al, AZO) films have been prepared on glass substrate by pulsed DC reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The sputtering process was accurately controlled by a closed-loop speedflo controller with a λ-sensor. Subsequently, the obtained AZO films were annealed at different temperature. The effect of annealing temperature on the optical, electrical, and structural properties was investigated. Structural, electrical and optical properties were performed by XRD, SEM, AFM, four-point probe and UV–vis–NIR spectrum measurements. Experimental results show that the electrical resistivity of AZO thin films deposited at room temperature can be as low as 5.24×10−4 Ω cm with post-deposition annealing at 300 °C.