Optical and electrical characterization of fluorine doped cadmium oxide thin films prepared by the sol-gel method

Highly transparent and conducting fluorine (F) doped cadmium oxide (CdO) thin films were deposited on glass slides by the sol-gel method. The films were doped by the addition of ammonium fluoride to the precursor solution whose optimum concentration was determined. The films were fired in an open atmosphere at 350 deg. C and after that, exposed to annealing treatments in different atmospheres (N2, N2/H2 mixture and Ar) at the same temperature. The films were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The resistivity was determined by the four probes method and current-voltage measurements in accordance with the standard Van der Pauw configuration. The CdO:F thin films obtained, showed high polycrystalline quality and high transmission in the visible region (≥ 90%), shifting towards the blue region of the absorption edge as the fluorine concentration in the precursor solution was increased from 0 to 30 at.%. The lowest resistivity values were reached for the samples with F content higher or equal to 5% and annealed in either N2 or a 96/4 N2/H2 gas mixture. Our resistivity value reached in the CdO:F layers was 4.5 x 10-4 Ω cm (20 Ω/square)