The influence of homo-buffer layer on structural, optical and electrical properties of ZnO:Al films

Aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) films were fabricated on glass by pulsed-laser deposition based on orthogonal design, and influences of homo-buffer layer on structural, optical and electrical properties of AZO films were investigated. The experiment results demonstrate that the homo-buffer layer is very beneficial to improve the quality of AZO films. In addition, both deposition temperature of homo-buffer layer (Thomo-buffer) and deposition oxygen pressure of homo-buffer layer (Phomo-buffer) have a considerable influence on the properties of AZO films. By optimizing the deposition parameters of homo-buffer layer and AZO film synthetically, the AZO film with low resistivity (2.13 × 10−4 Ω cm) and high transmittance (89.1%) has been obtained, which is a promising candidate material in transparent electrode applications.