Properties of low-temperature deposited ZnO thin films prepared by cathodic vacuum arc technology on different flexible substrates

•Polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl butyral and polyimide were used as substrates.•ZnO films were prepared by cathodic arc plasma deposition.•ZnO films have different properties due to different substrates.•The microstructure control of ZnO film on polymer substrate is important.

Un-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited on three different substrates (polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and polyimide (PI)) at a low temperature (< 75 °C) by cathode vacuum arc deposition. The microstructure, optical and electrical properties of the deposited films were investigated and discussed. All the deposited films reveal a preferred orientation with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate, and an average transmittance of over 85% in the visible region. The calculated optical band gaps are around 2.6, 3.14 and 3.18 eV, respectively, for the ZnO films deposited on the PI, PVB and PET substrates. The lowest resistivity and the highest Hall mobility are 5.31 × 10− 3 Ω-cm and 15.16 cm2/V-s for the ZnO film deposited on the PET substrate.