Influences of oxygen gas flow rate on electrical properties of Ga-doped ZnO thin films deposited on glass and sapphire substrates

The Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films deposited on glass and c-plane sapphire substrates have been comparatively studied in order to explore the role of grain boundaries in electrical properties. The influences of oxygen gas flow rates (OFRs) during the deposition by ion-plating were examined. The dependences of carrier concentration, lattice parameters, and characteristic of thermal desorption of Zn on the OFR showed common features between glass and sapphire substrates, however, the Hall mobility showed different behavior. The Hall mobility of GZO films on glass increased with increasing OFR of up to 15 sccm, and decreased with further increasing OFR. On the other hand, the Hall mobility of GZO films on c-sapphire increased for up to 25 sccm. The role of grain boundary in polycrystalline GZO films has been discussed. - Highlights: • Ga-doped ZnO films were deposited on glass and c-sapphire by ion-plating. • The epitaxial growth on c-sapphire was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. • Dependence of Hall mobility showed different tendency between glass and sapphire. • Grain boundaries influence transport properties at high O₂ gas flow rate