Effect of energetic electron beam treatment on Ga-doped ZnO thin films

•Ga-doping and electron beam treatment on sol–gel synthesized ZnO thin films.•Decrease of the resistivity of the ZnO thin films from 9.38 to 1.04 × 10−2 Ωcm by a factor of nine hundred.•Decrease in the resistivity with the increase in the carrier concentration.•Related to the broadening of the band gap energy.

Transparent conductive zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were synthesized by a sol–gel spin coating method with the addition of Ga(NO3)3 in a Zn(CH3COO)2 solution and exposed to electron beam treatment. The UV–Vis spectra demonstrated that all of the films had transmittances of over 85% in the visible region. When Ga(NO3)3 was added to the ZnO precursor solution, the resistivity of the ZnO thin film decreased and the carrier concentration increased significantly. After electron beam treatment was performed on the 0.4 at.% Ga-doped ZnO film, the optical band gap increased and the resistivity significantly decreased resulting from the increases of the carrier concentration and mobility. By combining Ga doping and electron beam treatment, the resistivity of the ZnO thin film was reduced by a factor of nine hundred.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide