Atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of zinc oxide and aluminum zinc oxide

•A second generation precursor was utilized for atmospheric pressure film growth.•Addition of water vapor to the carrier gas stream led to a marked reduction of ZnF2.•Carbonaceous contamination from the precursor was minimal.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited via atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. A second-generation precursor, bis(1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedionato)(N,N′-diethylethylenediamine) zinc, exhibited significant vapor pressure and good stability at one atmosphere where a vaporization temperature of 110 °C gave flux ~ 7 μmol/min. Auger electron spectroscopy confirmed that addition of H2O to the carrier gas stream mitigated F contamination giving nearly 1:1 metal:oxide stoichiometries for both ZnO and AZO with little precursor-derived C contamination. ZnO and AZO thin film resistivities ranged from 14 to 28 Ω·cm for the former and 1.1 to 2.7 Ω·cm for the latter.