Zinc oxide film formation by using XeCl excimer laser ablation

A number of fabrication techniques such as sputtering, chemical vapor deposition and laser ablation have been employed to prepare impurity-doped ZnO thin films. Among these techniques, the laser ablation method has many advantages such as high deposition rate and simple setup required for the film formation, and is suitable for obtaining thin films of compounds with excellent stoichiometric transfer of the target material. From a practical point of view, however, further improvements in the electrical, optical, and chemical properties of ZnO thin films are required. In the study, we demonstrate the preparation of impurity-doped ZnO thin films by the XeCl excimer laser ablation. Optimization of impurity content in the ZnO target and the effects of substrate temperature during deposition on the electrical and optical properties of the ZnO films mainly used as the transparent conducting material are investigated systematically.