| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1664358 | Thin Solid Films | 2015 | 5 Pages |
•High quality Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films deposited by DC pulsed magnetron sputtering.•EIS allows quantifying the durability of the AZO layers.•Magnetron sputtering AZO layers show high corrosion resistance values of 10− 6 Ω.•Correlation between corrosion resistance and optoelectronic properties is established.
In this paper an exhaustive analysis is performed on the electrochemical corrosion resistance of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) layers deposited on silicon wafers by a DC pulsed magnetron sputtering deposition technique to test layer durability. Pulse frequency of the sputtering source was varied and a detailed study of the electrochemical corrosion response of samples in the presence of a corrosive chloride media (NaCl 0.06 M) was carried out. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were performed after reaching a stable value of the open circuit at 2 h, 192 h and 480 h intervals. Correlation of the corrosion resistance properties with the morphology, and the optical and electrical properties was tested. AZO layers with transmission values higher than 84% and resistivity of 6.54 × 10− 4 Ω cm for a deposition process pressure of 3 × 10− 1 Pa, a sputtering power of 2 kW, a pulse frequency of 100 kHz, with optimum corrosion resistance properties, were obtained.
