Fabrication of low-resistive p-type Al-N co-doped zinc oxide thin films by RF reactive magnetron sputtering

p-Type aluminum-nitrogen (Al-N) co-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on glass substrate at 300 °C by RF reactive magnetron sputtering using an aluminum-doped zinc oxide (2.4 wt%Al₂O₃) target and N₂ reactive gas. In addition, the effect of N₂ reactive gas on the electrical and structural properties of Al-N co-doped ZnO thin films was also investigated. It was found that p-type Al-N co-doped ZnO thin films could be obtained only when the volume ratio of N₂ in the N₂-containing Ar working gas exceeded 10%. p-Type Al-N co-doped ZnO thin films with a minimum resistivity of 0.141 Ω cm, a p-type carrier concentration of 5.84×1018 cm^-3, and a Hall mobility of 3.68 cm²/V s were obtained in this study when the volume ratio of N₂ in the working gas was 30%.