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Hard transparent conducting hex-element complex oxide films by reactive sputtering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Ta-Kun Chen  and
Ming-Show Wong
Ta-Kun Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan, Republic of China 974
Ming-Show Wong*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan, Republic of China 974
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Hard transparent conducting oxide films of hex-element AlxCoCrCuFeNi were deposited by reactive direct current (dc) magnetron sputtering using homogeneous alloy targets. The composition–property relation was investigated by changing the aluminum molar ratio, x value, from 0.5 to 2. The films comprise only a cubic spinel phase without other accompanying crystalline oxide phases and exhibit a high hardness up to 22.2 GPa. A small, negative deviation from Vegard’s law was observed for the spinel phase, which indicated changes in cation distribution. The optical transmittance in both the visible and infrared region is increased with aluminum content, however, together with a loss of film conductivity. The Hall measurements reveal a p-type conducting behavior for the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi oxide film with a conductivity of 40.1 Ω−1cm−1, a carrier density of 5.81 × 1018 cm−3, and a mobility as high as 43.2 cm2V−1s−1. Moreover, Hall measurements show metallic conduction behavior for the Al0.5CoCrCuFeNi oxide film and thermal activated semiconducting properties for the Al1CoCrCuFeNi and Al2CoCrCuFeNi oxide films. Combine the crystal field theory and the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements, the decrease of film conductivity is explained by the decreases of available carriers and mobility due to the fact that increasing aluminum content reduces the number of conducting cations at octahedral sites and increases the activation energy for electrical conduction. XPS analyses also show lots of excess oxygen originated from anion-rich growth condition in the films deposited at high oxygen partial pressure that produce p-type carriers lowering the electrical resistivity. The amount of excess oxygen decreases with increasing Al content and also contributes to the variation of conductivity with x value.

Keywords

OxideSputteringTransparent conductor
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 23 , Issue 11 , November 2008 , pp. 3075 - 3089
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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