Characterization of boron-doped ZnO thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering with (100 − x)ZnO-xB2O3 ceramic targets

Boron-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) thin films are deposited with various compositions of (100 − x)ZnO-xB2O3 (x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 10 wt. %) ceramic targets by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The surface morphology, crystal structure, transmittance, and electrical behaviors of ZnO:B films are found to depend on the boron content of ceramic targets. Our results suggest that the ZnO:B film deposited with 3 wt.% B2O3 ceramic target exhibits the lowest resistivity of 5.65 × 10− 3 Ω cm and visible transmittance of 90%. This work demonstrates the effective doping of B into ZnO films from ceramic targets. The correlation between composition of ZnO-B2O3 ceramic targets and characteristics of ZnO:B films is also discussed.