Tailoring the refractive index of aluminum doped zinc oxide thin films by co-doping with titanium

The refractive index of transparent conductive oxides has a direct effect on the transmission of lights into thin film solar cells. Here we report the study of improving the refractive index of aluminum doped zinc oxide through titanium co-doping. The Al–Ti co-doped zinc oxide (ATZO) thin films with different Ti doping concentration were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering with ATZO targets in an argon atmosphere. The structural, optical and electrical properties of the thin films were investigated using X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet–visible-near-infrared spectroscopy and hall measurements, respectively. The results showed that the as-deposited thin films were all textured along c-axis and perpendicular to the surface of substrate. The average transmittance in the visible region were more than 80% for all the ATZO thin films. The minimum resistivity of the obtained ATZO (1 wt% TiO2 doping) thin films were 2.6 × 10−3 Ω cm and 1.4 × 10−3 Ω cm before and after annealing in vacuum, respectively. The refractive index of the thin films (at λ0 = 550 nm) increased from 1.91 to 2.05 as the TiO2 content increased from 0 wt% to 3 wt%.