Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
The influence of native point defects on the electrical and optical stability of zinc oxide (ZnO) layers in air produced by reactive RF magnetron sputtering is investigated. ZnO thin films are strongly affected by oxygen (O2) molecules in ambient atmosphere. For instance, surface defects such as oxygen vacancies act as adsorption sites of O2 molecules, and the chemisorption of O2 molecules depletes the surface electronic states and reduces channel conductivity. Thin films of ZnO produced have electrical resistivities between 8.6 × 103 and 8.3 × 108 Ω-cm, and were found to be electrically-stable in air. TFTs fabricated using these films exhibited effective mobilities of ∼3 cm2V-1s-1 and the threshold voltage shifts by < 5 V under gate bias stress of 1 MV/cm for up to 104 s.