Analysis of scattering mechanisms in zinc oxide films grown by the atomic layer deposition technique

Abstract

In this work, the analysis of the temperature-dependent electrical conductivity of highly crystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films obtained by the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) method is performed. It is deduced that the most important scattering mechanisms are: scattering by ionized defects (at low temperatures) as well as by phonons (mainly optical ones) at higher temperatures. Nevertheless, the role of grain boundaries in the carrier mobility limitation ought to be included as well. These conclusions are based on theoretical analysis and temperature-dependent Hall mobility measurements. The presented results prove that existing models can explain the mobility behavior in the ALD-ZnO films, being helpful for understanding their transport properties, which are strongly related both to the crystalline quality of deposited ZnO material and defects in its lattice.