Substrate temperature dependence of nanoparticle ZnO thin films deposited on flexible substrates by RF magnetron sputtering

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) thin films have been studied extensively for the applications in electronic devices such as in liquid crystal displays (LCDs), flat panel displays (FPDs), and organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). Many researchers have been using indium tin oxide (ITO) as TCO material on flexible substrates [1,2]. However, ITO thin films must be deposited at high temperatures. Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an attractive TCO material with a wide band gap of 3.37eV and a large exciton binding energy of 60 meV at room temperature. ZnO films are favorable for transparent electrode for flexible electronics as it is one of just several oxides that can be grown at low deposition temperatures, as low as room temperature [3], on various amorphous surfaces [4]. In this work, studies on the deposition of ZnO thin films on flexible polymer substrate by sputtering method have been done.