The effects of the argon plasma treatments on transparent conductive aluminum-dope zinc oxide thin films prepared by the pulsed DC magnetron sputtering

Transparent conductive aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al or AZO) thin films were fabricated by the pulsed DC magnetron sputtering deposition. The prepared AZO thin films were carefully treated with the argon plasma treatments in the vacuum state with a variety of the plasma conditions, i.e., the control power and the operated pressure. The plasma-treated AZO samples were then investigated for their crystal structures by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Their physical morphologies and surface topologies were examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Electrical properties of the samples were measured with the four-point probe and the Hall effect measurements. Finally, their optical transmission was observed with the UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometry. The results from the as-deposited and the plasma-treated AZO thin films will be compared and discussed.